Above: The liberty ship SS Harriet Tubman is christened on June 3, 1944. US National Archives Photo
This month Naperville has several opportunities to support its veterans. There is the annual Memorial Day Parade. My husband, a Navy vet, has participated several times and describes marching in it as “a very moving one-hour standing ovation.”
There is also a fundraising event to pay for Honor Flights to the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC for our rapidly dwindling WWII vets. Last November, I visited the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Ranked as the 4th best museum in the country, I walked out with a renewed wonder at what the men and women of that war went through to destroy fascism.
Our success in that conflict was also due to the energy and engineering of Americans at home. The nation quickly converted from making cars and parts to tanks and planes. An often-overlooked success was the rapid building of 2,711 Liberty Ships. Built to a standardized design, 250,000 parts per ship were pre-fabricated throughout the country in 250-ton sections; the first ship was welded together in 70 days.
By the end of the war they were produced in less than five days! With a crew of 44 and 25-armed guards, Liberty Ships could carry 2,840 jeeps, 440 tanks, or 230 million rounds of rifle ammunition and airplanes.
Liberty ships were named for outstanding deceased Americans, including 18 Afro-Americans, dozens for women, and one for Russian Major Marina Raskova an Amelia Earhart-like figure who was honored in a pre-Cold War sign of respect. The first interracial Liberty ship’s crew manned the Booker T. Washington (a famous Afro-American) and was captained by an Afro-American.
The only ship named after an Afro-American woman was for abolitionist Harriett Tubman, which is fitting because her greatest desire was for true democracy for all Americans. At the conclusion of WWII the U.S. was definitely on that path.
