Mildred "Jean" Liparoto was born in Vincennes, Indiana in 1919. Her mother was 19 and her father was a widower with two boys. She had two half-brothers and her mother had nine more children. Liparoto was second to the last of the nine. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Liparoto what her family did for a living during The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939.] Her father was a sharecropper and owned no land. He only owned a team of horses and a wagon. They all helped out on the farm from the time she can remember. She learned to plant potatoes and pick watermelon and corn. Everybody was the same where they lived. There were a few more prosperous people who had furniture or owned stores. In her neighborhood, the women did laundry for people as did her mother in a washtub with a washboard. Liparoto helped with that too. They used irons that they heated up on the stove. It was not easy as you could not control the temperature. Liparoto went to a Catholic school that is still there. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Liparoto if she remembers where she was when she learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Her son was two years old. After church, she stopped at her father-in-law's. He was Italian but could speak some English. He told her about it. She had never heard of Pearl Harbor. Communication was not fast back then. Two of her brothers went into the service. She did not realize how big the war would become. In history class, she heard about the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865] but did not think the country would go to war. When Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] came on the air [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941], they realized it was a serious thing. Later in life, she met people whose fathers were at Pearl Harbor at that time.

Mildred "Jean" Liparoto had nephews being drafted or who volunteered. Four nephews were in and there might have been more. Her two brothers were in as well. One brother was in the engineers and the other was in graves registration. He went on the fields after battles, recorded the dead, got their belongings, and tagged them. He said it was not easy and he had to consider it just a job. Her oldest brother was quite a ladies' man and was fun company. He worked at a papermill in Monroe, Michigan. Years later, her mother got a letter from a soldier who remembered him talking about the papermill. There was 35 dollars in it that he had borrowed from her brother. Her brother was killed in France, so the soldier sent the money to her mother through the papermill where her brother said he worked. Liparoto and her family never knew if her brother was married or not to this one girl. Her father had passed away by this time and her mother was in the hospital. The notice of her brother's death went to the woman in question. Her brother's name was Joseph Richardville [Annotator's Note: US Army Sergeant Joseph Richardville] and was the one in graves registration in Europe. Her other brother was in New Caledonia [Annotator's Note: New Caledonia, Oceania]. Her father spoke French. Her brother's death was heartbreaking. He was hit by a train while driving a jeep in France.

The young men were gone, and women were needed to work. Mildred "Jean" Liparoto's sister-in-law started working at Monroe Auto Equipment [Annotator's Note: Monroe Auto Equipment Company in Monroe, Michigan]. She had never driven before. She bought a car and Liparoto would drop her son off at her sister's house and be picked up by some men who worked there. She had never had a job and could use the money as she only got 80 dollars per month allotment. It was not much even though everything was much cheaper then. Her husband was in the Army and signed up in 1942. She had to sign for him because they were not taking married men with children or men over 35 years old. Men were lining up to volunteer. Liparoto felt if he wanted to be a soldier and wanted to go win the war, she would get by. He trained at Camp Blanding, Florida [Annotator's Note: in Clay County, Florida] and went to Italy after basic training. Back then, they did not publicize everything. That is how the war was won. Now they publicize everything. She wonders why they say those things on public television. Liparoto went to work at the Monroe Auto Equipment, which converted to war production. You could not buy new tires because everything went to the war effort. Her work was on 40mm shells [Annotator's Note: for the Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] on the inspection line. The shells came along on metal rollers in warm oil. They went across a scale. Underweight, overweight, or dented shells were rejected. They emphasized not putting any dented ones in as it could kill a soldier by jamming their gun. Her hair and clothes were oily from the fumes of the oil. They had to do the men's jobs and that gave rise to the "We Can Do It" slogan [Annotator's Note: from a wartime poster produced by J. Howard Miller for Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1943]. She felt pretty important and that she was helping the war effort. Everybody had to do their share. They had ration stamps and they could not buy a lot of things. Cigarettes, sugar, coffee, and gasoline were rationed. Everybody had to share. Meat was rationed too.

Mildred "Jean" Liparoto just did what she had to do [Annotator's Note: to get by with nephews, brothers, and a husband off at war]. She had to carry coal up from the basement to her apartment to her coal-heated stove. There was no furnace in the house. It was not easy. She had one child then and did not have another for 12 years. She worked with mostly women [Annotator's Note: at the Monroe Auto Equipment Company in Monroe, Michigan]. Older men who were not drafted were supervising and were very kind. Women proved they could do it. Everybody was patriotic back then, not like it was for the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. Liparoto knew the work she was doing was important. They were not to have any shells with dents in them as the guns [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] would jam and there would be dead soldiers. They [Annotator's Note: women] had to step up and help win the war. They could not just sit at home. That is when they began to wear slacks. They never wore them before the war. They were paid pretty well. Sometimes she and others would get together and go to a movie or play cards. There was no television then. She kept up with war news through LIFE [Annotator's Note: an American general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography; 1883 to 2007] and Look [Annotator's Note: an American biweekly, general-interest magazine; 1937 to 1971] magazines and the movies that always had the newsreel first. She stayed in touch with her brothers and husband by writing letters. Her mother could not read nor write, so she wrote for her. When they came home, she did not notice much of a difference other than they were more grown-up. They did not want to talk about it. Liparoto had gone to work in 1943 and did not work more than three months. It was difficult to drag her son out in the Michigan weather, get ready for work, drop her son off at her sisters, work, then pick him up and go home. Liparoto gave her sister some of her rations for his food.

Mildred "Jean" Liparoto's husband was aboard ship when President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] died [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. Liparoto cried because she liked President Roosevelt. His voice was soothing. She listened to his fireside chats [Annotator's Note: a series of evening radio addresses by President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944]. He kept the nation calm. She still loves to hear his speeches. Her husband was on his way over but did not know where he was going. His letters would have things cut out of them. He told her Red Skelton [Annotator's Note: Richard Red Skelton, American entertainer] was aboard ship to entertain them. Bob Hope [Annotator's Note: Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope KBE; British-American entertainer who was famous for entertaining American troops serving overseas during World War 2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War] went over every Christmas. That part was cut out of his mail. He had said "born in your hometown" so she knew who it was as he [Annotator's Note: Skelton] was born in Vincennes, Indiana. His mail was censored more when he was on his way overseas than while he was there. Her husband was a mess sergeant in the infantry. They did not celebrate the end of the war in Europe as much as they did when the war with Japan ended. They thought they would come home when that happened, but they did not. They had to come home under the point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. Her husband was on occupation duty after the war. Liparoto was praying to "drop the damn bomb on the Japanese" [Annotator's Note: the atomic bomb, nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. They would not give up and were committing atrocities. When she heard the war ended, she went downtown. There was a bonfire in the main street. The police were telling them not to throw shoes and things in the fire. Her one brother was not in the war and was the head of a papermill union. She saw him on the corner, and she told him the war in Japan had ended. Her husband came home in 1946 and processed out of Indianapolis [Annotator's Note: Indianapolis, Indiana] at the same time they were having her mother's funeral. He did not use the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and went back to work at his old job, which had been promised to the men when they left. He kept getting sinus infections from steel dust and said he wanted to go back in the Army. He went back in. After being a soldier, he did not want to work in a steel mill. He made the Army his career. She thanks God. She has a home and his secure.

The events of the war that really stand out in Mildred "Jean" Liparoto's memory are Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] death [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945] and the bombing of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. She asked her son if he remembers anything about World War 2 and he said it was practicing the blackouts. He did not like that they could not go out with any lights. No lighting cigarettes outside or driving cars. Liparoto did not miss an issue of Look [Annotator's Note: an American biweekly, general-interest magazine, 1937 to 1971] or LIFE [Annotator's Note: an American general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography; 1883 to 2007] magazine. [Annotator's Note: Liparoto and the interviewer discuss Ernest Taylor Pyle, American journalist and war correspondent.] Coming up during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], the war rationing did not bother Liparoto. They rationed their food when they sat at the table during the Depression. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Liparoto what it means to have been a Rosie the Riveter, an allegorical cultural icon representing women factory and shipyard workers.] She does not like all of the publicity and stuff. She does not want glory. She told her helper this is the last time she is going to do this [Annotator's Note: give an interview]. She thinks the war is being made very important to America today. She was 26 years old when it ended. She thinks Americans appreciate the war and understand the purpose. It seems to be very important to people now. 1940s fashions are coming back. She does not know why it is so important to everyone now. We found out what we can do and that we have soldiers willing to lay down their lives for freedom. That should mean a lot. Her granddaughter told her that the war brought prosperity. Roosevelt was the first President Liparoto could vote for. He turned the country around from the Depression. Her granddaughter told her the war is what got the country out of the Depression because there was work for everybody including the women. America needs to know that freedom is not free. Her husband's name was Phillip [Annotator's Note: Phillip Liparoto].