The countless women who made innumerable contributions to the national welfare during World War II are getting the tribute they so richly deserve at a special national park in California.

Michelle Locke of The Associated Press added drama to a recent article written from Richmond, Calif.:

“Fog drifts over the old shipyard, casting a veil over the shoulders of empty factories where thousands of women once thronged, welding and hammering and typing and filing as they put a lipsticked smile on the face of the war at home. : This is the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park, a sprawling tribute to the sacrifices of a generation located in what was once a wartime boomtown on the shores of San Francisco Bay.”

Ken Burns’ recent television documentary, “The War,” detailed the impact of the war boom on cities throughout the nation and spotlighted the efforts and sacrifices that women made to help produce an Allied victory over the Germans and Japanese. There were posters and songs and various other presentations of a fictional “Rosie the Riveter” and how she labored in factories to provide war items. But the assembly line females were only part of the vast picture. Female support came from many other corners of our world.

Among those who have visited the California site is Kate Grant, a former Rosie who now lives in Moore, Okla. She was a tack welder and used to go 40 feet down to the bottom of ships to lay beads of hot lead on seams. She worked the graveyard shift, midnight to 8 a.m. and then went home to take care of her baby, who was watched at night by a younger sister. She says she had two weeks of training, then was outfitted with a hood, goggles, leather pants and gloves to prevent injury from her acetylene torch.

Grant, like so many women in the war effort, had an extra-special reason for her diligence and courage on the job. Her husband had joined the Marines and was shipped overseas. She once wrote him: “Honey, I feel like I’m building a ship for you to come home in.”

One of the special achievements of “The War” was how it called attention to the work and sacrifices of American women from 1941 through 1945. Many who felt they knew a great deal about that period in our history, through which some of them lived, are amazed at how much Burns documented about events they knew nothing about. One of these special focuses was on our Rosie the Riveter types who did so much more than weld, rivet and do factory work.