Mae Krier was born in 1926 in North Dakota. In early 1943, Mae, her sister and a friend went to Seattle where they got jobs at the Boeing factory, building B-17 and B-29 bombers and earning 90+ cents an hour. Two weeks of training on how to drill holes prepared them for their jobs first as buckers and then as riveters. “A bucker and riveter work in tandem, one on either side of the fuselage, bucking on the inside and riveting on the outside. We used a communication system using the bucker bar for our messaging. Tap it so many times to remove a rivet or so many times to hit it again, etc. I worked alongside Gold Star moms who lost a son and widows who had lost their husbands and I was humbled by them, they didn’t quit, they kept working despite their terrible loss, doing what our country needed of them. I’m proud to be one of the millions that worked but I’m especially proud of them.” Two special job memories: “Meeting General Hap Arnold where he talked with us and shook our hands! And the other is helping to build Boeing’s 5,000th B-17 plane where we all got to sign our names on it. While in Seattle, I met my future husband, Norm, on the dance floor in 1944 and we danced our way through life! We got married in 1945 and were married for nearly 70 years. He was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Pasco, WA and I got a job with the Army Engineers for 0.83¢ an hour. I actually worked with Italian POWs.” During the Korean war, Mae returned to factory work at Kaiser-Fleetwings for a short time. “Though we weren’t in the trenches, I thought Rosie needed some kind of recognition for what she did during the war. Everything the soldiers needed we made: planes, jeeps, ships, tanks, ammunition, parachutes. We were soldiers without guns”. And to that end, Mae tirelessly worked a National Rosie the Riveter Day on March 21 as well achieving the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of all Rosies!