Cadet Airman 1st Class Cassia Brown of the Pueblo Eagles Composite Squadron shows Mary Ellen Salazar (front right) the section of a B-29 Superfortress where tail gunners accessed the bombers’ rear guns, as Cadet Airman 1st Class Caitlin King and Carol McAuliffe look on.
(Photo by Senior Member Shad L. Brown)
Senior Member Shad L. Brown
Public Affairs Officer
Pueblo Eagles Composite Squadron
Colorado Wing
COLORADO -- Cadets from the Pueblo Eagles Composite Squadron met an important part of aviation history recently while giving tours of a fully restored B-29 Superfortress bomber -- one of the legions of World War II female assembly plant workers whose experiences led to the “Rosie the Riveter” prototype.
Mary Ellen Salazar, 86, of Cheyenne, Wyo., visited the Fred Weisbrod Aircraft Museum on Aug. 15 while the Pueblo Historical Aircraft Society was hosting open cockpit tours of the B-29. Cadets assist the society and the public by providing tours of the bomber’s cockpit and educating visitors about the Superfortress and its role in securing victory in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.
The cadets were soon surprised to learn that Salazar may have assembled the tail gunner seat on the same B-29 the cadets were showing her. She told them she had been responsible for riveting together seats that were eventually used in the B-29 bomber assembly lines, although she was unaware at the time of just what she was working on.
“It was always very secret; we never knew what we were working on,” said Salazar, who worked in Torrance, Calif., at the Doak Aircraft Co. factory from 1941-1943.
Always curious about seeing a Superfortress, when Salazar learned about the fully restored B-29 in Pueblo and traveled with her family to see it. The museum visit marked the first time Salazar had ever seen a fully assembled version of the bomber she had helped build almost 70 years earlier, and she said she was amazed at the sheer size of the B-29.
Salazar was extremely impressed with the information the cadets shared with her about the B-29 as well as their professionalism in giving her an up-close tour of the Superfortress.
“The cadets did a great job (and were) very friendly!” she said. The cadets were equally impressed with this very active member of the greatest generation, who climbed up into the cockpit with them and showed them her pin signifying her work on Doak Aircraft’s assembly lines.
“She was an impressive lady! She came all the way from Wyoming to see the B-29, and I actually got to meet someone who helped build this plane,” said Cadet Airman 1st Class Cassia Brown.
While Salazar couldn’t remember the exact dates of her work on the assembly lines, she still proudly remembers her hourly wage -- $1.65, which translates to a respectable $23.88 in today’s dollars.
The B-29 at the Weisbrod Aircraft Museum, called “Peachy,” is one of only 23 fully restored bombers of its kind in the nation.
Donated to Pueblo in 1976 by the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, the aircraft is maintained by members of the Pueblo Historical Aircraft Society. Civil Air Patrol cadets volunteer to escort visitors inside the bomber on a regular basis.
