Former World War II Era Iowa AAP employee returns 'Home'

MIDDLETOWN, Iowa -- To the Conway family, 91-year-old matriarch Kathryn Mae Jamieson Conway received one heck of a birthday present.

Conway visited the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant on April 23 -- 70 years from when she first started working at the plant. From 1942 to 1945, Conway worked as an ammunition shell driller and a timekeeper.

"Thank you for coming here, today. We are happy to have you and your family here," said Lt. Col. Michael Bruens, plant commander. "Some things have changed since you worked her, but you will be surprised to see some things that may have not changed as much since 1945."

Conway, along with nine family members, spent more than three hours at the plant.

"It was quite an experience," said Conway as she reflected on her first day at the plant in 1942. But before she arrived at the plant, she had already lived through the Great Depression and the start of World War II.

Born on April 9, 1921, her father worked as a life-long coal miner in Hiteman, Iowa, located in southern Iowa. After graduating from Hiteman High School in 1938, she worked at various jobs.

However, when World War II started, the doctor she had been working for as a secretary was called to active duty.

She wanted to apply for a nurse's assistant job and needed several references to apply for the training. One of the references required was from a minister or clergyman. She was taking instructions to join the Catholic Church and her priest instructor, Friar Heinan of Albia, Iowa, suggested she apply to the Iowa AAP instead, since the pay was much better and there was no training or schooling required.

Heinan gave her a "glowing" reference and the name of the hiring officer and sent her on her way. She was hired immediately and started work the same day (as she recalls it) that she was hired.

After telling those around her how she arrived at the plant, she took her family and Army officials down memory lane.

"When I first started, I was pretty nervous about (making ammunition). It bothered me for awhile. Every time I drilled a hole in one of those shells, I would think, 'Somebody's going to get it,'" she said. "I kept telling myself I would be the cause of it."

After talking with several other workers, many of them older than the 21-year-old, she came to accept she was part of the war effort and saving lives.

"I had two brothers in World War II -- one in the Navy and one in the Army," she said. "I needed the money, but more importantly, I wanted to help my brothers. When I talked with the other workers, we bunched together at lunch and talked it over," Conway said. "We finally said it was our job and we had to do it and we had to do it right."

She married John Conway after he returned from combat as a decorated, wounded Army Infantryman of the 90th Division in 1945.

She later had a brother in the Korean War and two sons who served in the Vietnam War. She also had three grandchildren in the service.

"I worked the midnight to 8 (a.m.) shift. Sometimes, I would have to work double shifts and I would come home, wash up, grab something to eat, and soon be back at the plant," she said.

After three years, she returned home.

"I went home in 1945 because my mother's health was bad," Conway said. "I had a 5-year-old sister, so I went home to take care of them. I hated to quit, but they were more important."

Although she went home to Melrose, Iowa, with her husband to raise five children, the family said she never forgot about Iowa AAP.

"We're extremely proud of her," her son, John Conway Jr., said. "Seventy years ago this spring, she showed up (at the plant) as a young, coal miner's daughter. Thank you, we appreciate (this tour)."

Her husband, John Conway, passed away after 55 years of marriage, in 2000.

Family members received a tour on Conway's former Line 1, as well as current lines that produce prop charges and 155mm artillery rounds.

Bruens presented Conway with a command coin and certificate from his command, a letter and coin from Col. Linwood Clark, commander, Crane Army Ammunition Activity, and a written letter and coin from Brig. Gen. (Promotable) Gustave F. Perna, commanding general, JMC.

Iowa AAP is a subordinate organization of the Joint Munitions Command responsible for producing tank practice rounds, artillery rounds and 40mm grenades, and for pressing missile warheads.

From its headquarters in Rock Island, Ill., JMC operates a nationwide network of conventional ammunition manufacturing plants and storage depots, and provides on-site ammunition experts to U.S. combat units wherever they are stationed or deployed. JMC's customers are U.S. forces of all military services, other U.S. Government agencies, and allied nations.