Corpus Christi, 1942. Congress Abolished the Agency That Trained Her.
The film of this episode premieres December 15, 2026 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
In August 1942 Howard R. Hollem photographed the Assembly and Repair Department of the U.S. Naval Air Base at Corpus Christi, Texas, in Kodachrome.
Transcript
Eight weeks
R001 A rivet is her fighting weapon. Oyida Peaks, daughter of a Navy lieutenant, one of many women taking NYA training to become mechanics at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks apprenticeship she will be qualified as a civil service worker in the Assembly and Repair Department
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-388 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
She had eight weeks to learn this. The agency that trained her had eleven months left.
R002 NYA employees receiving training in the Assembly and Repair Dept., U.S. Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-385 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The naval air base at Corpus Christi, Texas, in August of 1942. The caption calls them N-Y-A employees, in training.
R003 Learning to work a cutting machine, these two NYA employees receive training to fit them for important work, Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks they will be eligible for civil service jobs at the Naval Air Base
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-53 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Two of them at a cutting machine. After eight weeks, it says, they will be eligible for civil service jobs at the base.
R004 Working inside the nose of a PBY, Elmer J. Pace is learning the construction of Navy planes, Corpus Christi, Texas. As an NYA trainee at the Naval Air Base, he gets practical experience. After about eight weeks, he will go into civil service as a sheet metal worker
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-52 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Inside the nose of a patrol bomber, a trainee named Elmer Pace. Eight weeks, and then civil service as a sheet metal worker.
R007 "Women in white" doctor Navy planes (motors) at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mildred Webb, an NYA trainee at the base, is learning to operate a cutting machine in the Assembly and Repair Department. After about eight weeks as an apprentice she will be eligible for a civil service job in the capacity for which she has been trained
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-68 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Mildred Webb, learning to run a cutting machine. Eight weeks as an apprentice, and then a job in the capacity for which she has been trained.
R005 Mrs. Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair department of the Naval air base, supervises Chas. Potter, a NYA trainee from Michigan, Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks of training he will go into civil service. Should he be inducted or enlist in the armed service, he will be valuable to mechanized units of the Army or Navy
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-46 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The man at the bench is Charles Potter, a trainee from Michigan. The woman supervising him is Virginia Davis, a riveter.
R006 Answering the nation's need for womanpower, Mrs. Virginia Davis made arrangement for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work in the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Both are employed under Civil Service in the Assembly and repair department. Mrs. Davis' training will enable her to take the place of her husband should he be called by the armed service
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-47 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
She made arrangements for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work. Both are civil service. Both in the same department.
What the three letters were
Those three letters are an agency. Its own final report lists five Army aviation projects running that April — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, California, and Texas. After Texas it puts three words in brackets. Where girls were employed.
The rule was that the work had to be real. Experience on actual planes, in a shop located near or connected with an air depot or aviation base.
Duncan Field is an Army depot in Texas. Eighty-nine of the first hundred and nine came out the other end with civil service jobs there.
R009 Working in the Assembly and Repair Dept. of the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-967 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The report never names Corpus Christi. Its aviation projects are the Army's, and this is the Navy's base.
D01 Working in the Assembly and Repair Dept. of the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas (detail)
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-967 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
What it gives you is the machine. And the captions here name that machine twelve times.
Assembly and Repair
R008 This sailor mechanic is inspecting a PBY plane at the Naval Air Base in Corpus Christi, Texas. The ship had been reconditioned by the Civil Service employees at the Assembly and Repair Department in the base
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-970 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Assembly and Repair. The second word is the one that matters. This ship, the caption says, had been reconditioned by the civil service employees of that department.
R010 Working on a plane at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-965 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Nothing here is being built. Everything here came back.
R011 Working with a sea-plane at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-968 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A flying boat, up on the ramp.
R030 Assembly and Repairs Dept. mechanic Mary Josephine Farley works on a Wright Whirlwind motor, Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-65 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Mary Josephine Farley, on a Wright Whirlwind motor.
R031 Bowen and Olsen, a riveter and her supervisor, in the Assembly and Repair Dept. at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-71 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Bowen and Olsen. A riveter and her supervisor.
R027 Mrs. Doris Duke, who is 26 and a mother of one child, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. Duke is a civil service worker in the Assembly and Repair dept. at the Navy Air Base (shot - reconditioning spark plugs)
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-54 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Doris Duke is twenty-six and the mother of one child. Her caption ends with a note to itself, in brackets: reconditioning spark plugs.
R012 Sailor at the Naval Air Base wears the new type protective clothing and gas mask designed for use in chemical warfare, Corpus Christi, Texas. These uniforms are lighter than the old type
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-51 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Not everything in the file is a repair job. New protective clothing and a gas mask, for chemical warfare. The uniforms, it says, are lighter than the old type.
R013 Jesse Rhodes Waller, A.O.M., third class, tries out a 30-calibre machine gun he has just installed in a Navy plane, Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-50 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Jesse Rhodes Waller, trying out a thirty-calibre machine gun he has just installed.
R014 It's an intricate operation - installing a 30-calibre machine gun in a Navy PBY plane, but not too tricky for Jesse Rhodes Waller, Corpus Christi, Texas. He's a Georgia man who's been in the Navy 5-1/2 years. At the Naval Air Base he sees that the flying ships are kept in tip-top shape. Waller is an aviation ordnance mate
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-85 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A Georgia man, five and a half years in the Navy. The guns are his job.
R015 J.D. Estes at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-84 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
J. D. Estes. Seven years in, and his mates call him an old sea salt.
R016 He's like to use that gun on the Axis. After seven years in the Navy, J.D. Estes is considered an old sea salt by his mates at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-86 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Somebody at the Office of War Information wrote this one down as speech. He's like to use that gun on the Axis.
The flight line
R017 Feeding an SNC advanced training plane its essential supply of gasoline is done by sailor mechanics at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Standing on the wing is Floyd Helphrey who came from Iowa to join the Navy early in the year. At right is W. Gardner of Illinois who used to be a crane operator
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-63 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
On the wing is Floyd Helphrey, who came from Iowa to join the Navy early in the year. At right, W. Gardner of Illinois, who used to be a crane operator.
R018 Sailor mechanic fueling a plane at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-966 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
This is a training base, and training bases wear aeroplanes out. That is what the shop is for.
R020 Starting a propeller at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-976 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Starting a propeller.
R023 Navy N2S primary land planes at the naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-392 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The yellow ones are primary trainers. Every one of them comes back.
R025 Ensign Noressey and Cadet Thenics at the Naval Air base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-399 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
An ensign and a cadet.
R026 Aviation cadets at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-1054 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
These men are what the base is for. The photographs anybody remembers are of the people who kept them flying.
What she was before
R028 With a woman's determination, Lorena Craig takes over a man-size job, Corpus Christi, Texas. Before she came to work at the Naval air base she was a department store girl. Now she is a cowler under civil service
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-59 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And every one of those captions does the same thing. Lorena Craig was a department store girl.
R032 Women from all fields have joined the production army, Corpus Christi, Texas. Miss Grace Weaver, a civil service worker at the Naval Air Base, and a school teacher before the war, is doing her part for victory along with her brother who is a flying instructor in the Army. Miss Weaver paints the American insignia on repaired Navy plane wings
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-81 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Grace Weaver was a school teacher. Her brother is a flying instructor in the Army. She paints the insignia on repaired wings.
R033 Painting the American insignia on airplane wings is a job that Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy, a former office worker, does with precision and patriotic zeal. Mrs. McElroy is a civil service employee at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Her husband is a flight instructor
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-387 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Urma Lee Mc-Elroy was an office worker. Her husband is a flight instructor. The same job, on the other wing.
R034 Formerly a sociology major at the University of Southern California, Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis (right) now "keeps 'em flyin'" at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. She is a supervisor under civil service in the Assembly and Repair Department. It is her job to maintain morale among the women by helping them solve housing and other personal problems. With her is Jo Ann Whittington, an NYA trainee at the plant
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-56 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Eloise Ellis was a sociology major at the University of Southern California. Beside her is Jo Ann Whittington, a trainee.
R037 Women are contributing their skills to the nation's needs by keeping our country's planes in top-notch fighting condition, Corpus Christi, Texas. Wife of a disabled World War I veteran, Mrs. Cora Ann Bowen (left) works as a cowler at the Naval Air Base. Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis is a senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs department
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-55 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Cora Ann Bowen is the wife of a disabled veteran of the last war. She is a cowler — the person who fits the metal skin back around an engine.
Somewhere to live
R035 Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis has been appointed by civil service to be senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. She buoys up feminine morale in her department by arranging suitable living conditions for out-of-state employees and by helping them with their personal problems
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-82 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Ellis was appointed senior supervisor by civil service, and her caption says plainly what the job is. She buoys up morale in her department by arranging suitable living conditions for out-of-state employees.
R038 Pearl Harbor widows have gone into war work to carry on the fight with a personal vengeance, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. Virginia Young (right) whose husband was one of the first casualties of World War II, is a supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department of the Naval Air Base. Her job is to find convenient and comfortable living quarters for women workers from out of the state, like Ethel Mann, who operates an electric drill
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-78 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Virginia Young's husband was one of the first casualties of the war. Her job is to find living quarters for women workers from out of the state — like Ethel Mann, at the drill.
Out of the state is not a detail. It is a procedure. The requisition that moved a young worker across a state line had to state the wages, the hours, the living and working conditions, and a description of the living facilities in the area to which they were to be transferred.
And here is where they came from. West Virginia sent the most — three thousand two hundred and ninety-four. Kentucky, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two. Tennessee, one thousand six hundred and ninety. Texas, two thousand one hundred and fifty.
In the first five months of 1943, eleven thousand two hundred and thirty-four of them arrived at the induction centres. Nine thousand and seventy-five went on into war industry. Eighty-two percent.
Fort Worth, October
R039 Riveters at work on fuselage of Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-22 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Five hundred miles north, two months later, the same photographer walked into a different kind of building.
R040 Working inside fuselage of a Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-24 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant at Fort Worth.
R041 Assembling Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-27 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
B-24 Liberators, and a transport built on the same wing.
R050 Working on wing of Consolidated Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp. plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-44 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Thirty-seven frames. Not one caption says N-Y-A. Not one says civil service. Not one says eight weeks.
R067 Drilling on a Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-434 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Consolidated hired its own.
R058 Workers on the Liberator Bombers, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-384 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Workers on the Liberator bombers. The Library has had to supply the place — Fort Worth, Texas, sits in brackets at the end of the line.
R042 A hydraulic mechanic greasing the landing gear of a transport, before the plane leaves the last station on the assembly line at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-29 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A hydraulic mechanic greasing the landing gear, before the plane leaves the last station on the line.
R043 Drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-30 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Drilling a wing bulkhead.
R044 Drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-31 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Drilling a wing bulkhead.
R045 Drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-33 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Drilling a wing bulkhead. The caption is the same three times, word for word.
R051 Metal tubing at the Consolidated Aircraft Corp. plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-45 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Metal tubing.
R055 A lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-305 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A lathe operator.
R060 Lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-421 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A lathe operator.
R062 Riveter at work on Consolidated bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-423 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A riveter at work.
R064 Installing structural parts of a C-87 transport plane in the tunnel of a tail fuselage section at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-425 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The tunnel of a tail fuselage section.
R056 Putting the nose section of a mighty transport plane in place in the fuselage mating fixture at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-379 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The nose going into the mating fixture.
R066 A mating operation on a transport plane just before it comes to the pre-assembly line at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-430 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The same operation, just before the plane comes to the pre-assembly line.
R057 Installing an engine at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-382 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
An engine going in.
R063 Getting a nose door ready to put on a C-87 transport plane at the end of the assembly line at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-424 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A nose door, at the end of the line.
Six names
R053 Production of B-24 bombers and C-87 transports, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas. Cabbie Coleman, former housewife, works at western aircraft plant. Installing of oxygen racks above the flight deck
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-290 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Six of the thirty-seven captions do carry a name, and each of the six comes with a former life. Cabbie Coleman, former housewife, installing oxygen racks above the flight deck.
R052 Helen Bray, who left school to become a mechanic at a western aircraft plant, is making an emplanage section on a new Consolidated transport, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas. This new ship, adapted from the B-24 bomber, is known as the C-87, carries one of the greatest human and cargo loads of any plane now in mass production
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-289 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Helen Bray left school for this. Her caption will not say where she is: it calls it a western aircraft plant.
R054 Mary Louise Stepan, 21, used to be a waitress. She has a brother in the air corps. She is working on transport parts in the hand mill, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-292 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Mary Louise Stepan is twenty-one and used to be a waitress. She has a brother in the air corps.
R049 Beulah Faith, 20, used to be sales clerk in department store, reaming tools for transport on lathe machine, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-43 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Beulah Faith is twenty and used to be a sales clerk in a department store.
R061 Frances Eggleston, aged 23, came from Oklahoma, used to do office work. Removing paper from pilot's window(?), Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-422 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Frances Eggleston is twenty-three, came from Oklahoma, used to do office work.
R048 Rita Rodriguey,
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-37 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And the sixth caption, in full, is a name and a comma. Whoever was going to finish it never did.
R046 A C-87 transport plane, just off the assembly line, at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation field, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-34 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
What they were building was new — a transport adapted from the bomber, off the line and out on the field.
R047 Transport plane takes off on test flight, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-36 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A test flight.
R059 Loading new transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Fort Worth, Texas · October 1942 · LC-USW36-411 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
New aeroplanes, being loaded.
Liquidation
Nine months after this, on the third of July, 1943, the National Youth Administrator terminated the war production projects. Congress had ordered the agency liquidated and given him until the first of January.
This is the appropriation that did it. The heading says National Youth Administration. Everything underneath the heading is money to shut it down — not exceeding three million dollars, taken out of what was left of the money meant to run it.
Between the thirtieth of June and the fifteenth of December, sixty-four thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight people came off the payroll. On the twenty-eighth of December there were about seventy-five left.
Aubrey Williams, the Administrator, put one line of regret into the foreword. It was not for the young people. It was that nobody had thought what to do with a nationwide training plant worth seventy-five million dollars.
What survived
R029 Lorena Craig is a cowler under civil service at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas
Howard R. Hollem · Corpus Christi, Texas · August 1942 · LC-USW36-73 · Library of Congress · OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
It went to the Treasury for disposal. What survived is eight weeks of it, in colour, on a woman who had been a department store girl.
Sources
- Howard R. Hollem, U.S. Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, August 1942 — 61 colour transparencies, LC-USW36 series, FSA/OWI Collection, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. 38 are used here. Period Kodachrome; nothing in this episode is colorized. Masters at `https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/<;pk>/` and free to download at full resolution.
- Howard R. Hollem, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, Fort Worth, Texas, October 1942 — 37 colour transparencies, LC-USW36 series, same collection. 29 are used here.
- The full 98-frame pool, with each record's call number, date and complete caption, is in `research/hollem-texas-1942/pool.json` and `captions-all.txt`. The 31 frames dropped are listed with a reason each in `research/hollem-texas-1942/picks.py`.
- Photo dates come from `created_published_date` or the caption, never from a harvest timestamp (the 052 error). Corpus Christi is dated `1942 August`, Fort Worth `1942 Oct.` on every record.
- Masters were pulled from the Wikimedia Commons mirror of the fsac file at 3,000 px; three frames Commons does not carry (2017878247, 2017878248, 2017878287) came from `tile.loc.gov`'s master TIFFs. No plate in this episode is enlarged past 1.22× (`tools/exhibit.py audit`).
- National Youth Administration, *Final Report of the National Youth Administration, fiscal years 1936–1943* (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1944). Federal document, public domain. Scan: `archive.org/details/finalreportofnat00unit`. *
- Labor–Federal Security Appropriation Act, 1944, Public Law 135, 78th Congress, ch. 221, approved 12 July 1943 — 57 Stat. 518. Federal document, public domain. Scan: `archive.org/details/us_stat_57`, PDF p. 531 / leaf 530. *
- No employment, production or wage figure for either plant. Nothing consulted carries one. The report's "$110 a month" is a Middletown, Pennsylvania figure and is not used.
- The Final Report never mentions Corpus Christi, and never mentions the Navy's base there. Its five aviation projects are the Army's. Scene 11 states this on screen; the report is used for the shape of the programme and for the liquidation, not as a document about this base.
- No claim about who is missing from these frames. The 98 captions and the two documents used here carry nothing about the racial composition of either workforce, and the episode asserts nothing about it.
- The one damaged-transparency and mount question was checked on the plate contact sheets (`research/hollem-texas-1942/sheet-plates-*.png`); no frame was retouched and nothing was painted out.