Former Fort Lee armorer celebrates 102nd birthday

By Kathryn C. WeigelJuly 5, 2012

Female armorers
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Clara Pito and daughter
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FORT LEE, Va. (July 5, 2012)- A birthday party at the nearby Hopewell Health Care and Rehabilitation Center has sparked a few discoveries at Fort Lee. The honoree, Clara Jozwiak Pito, was celebrating her 102nd birthday June 27 when her daughter, Mary Frances Pito, produced a U.S. Army photo of her mother taken during World War II while her father was on active duty with the Army.

The photo shows Mrs. Pito and the late Muriel "Dolly" Chapman, both of Hopewell, repairing an M-1 rifle at Camp Lee.

Long-time Quartermaster Corps historian, Dr. Steven E. Anders, who is now the CASCOM historian, had no knowledge or record of women doing small arms work here during World War II. Good records were not kept of much that happened at Camp Lee during the war, he explained, noting he has gleaned interesting information from former military members or their children who come back for a visit and share their memories with him.

Paul Morando, director of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, had his staff do a quick search through the museum's bound copies of the Fort Lee Traveller. The museum struck gold.

Although the photo of Mrs. Pito and Mrs. Chapman was not published, it was apparently taken as part of the preparation for a July 26, 1944, article headlined "Ten Feminine Armorers Performing Work Of 20 GIs In Small Arms Repair Shop Of Camp Lee's Ordnance Office."

The article, written by Pvt. Al Abrams, supplements the memories Mrs. Pito has of her two years working on post.

"In the small arms repair shop of the camp ordnance office, ten young women are doing the work of twenty GIs," wrote Abrams. "The civilian females are expert armorers who are among the first in the country to replace GIs as weapon repair workers.

"These women can take a rifle apart quicker than a basic noncom, can load a carbine as expertly as any GI sporting an expert's medal on his chest, and can inspect an A303 more thoroughly than a platoon leader examining the rifles of rookies on Saturday inspections."

Mrs. Pito still talks about checking the barrel for defects and making sure the sight was still aligned properly. She also recalls taking rifles to a range where, without ammunition, the women test-fired the weapons to ensure the triggers worked well.

The daughter of Polish immigrants was born in Pennsylvania but grew up on the family's 200-acre peanut farm in Prince George County. She became accustomed to hard and hot work early in life as she hoed weeds and harvested peanuts. Later, she worked for the Tubize Artificial Silk Co. that manufactured rayon in Hopewell. After the war, Mrs. Pito worked for Arnold Pen Co. in Petersburg.

Mrs. Pito and her late husband Louis were involved in veterans' organizations for many years.

The 10 female armorers were apparently hired in April 1944 as trainees. As Abrams put it, "most of the women did not know a bolt from a swivel. Today they are classified as expert armorers and some are on their way to qualifying as armament machinists, skilled in use of precision grinders, drill presses and lathes."

The women were important to Camp Lee's training mission -- and, therefore, the war effort -- because they inspected every rifle in camp at least twice a year, Abrams wrote.

In addition to Mrs. Pito and Mrs. Chapman, the women armorers were Gracie Lunsford, Snow Poole, Veronica Falls, Evelyn Kennedy, Dorothy Thompson, Dorothy Kerr, Margaret Barber and Louise Crockett.