St. Louis ? Wanda Weaver’s co-workers just called her “Rosie.” After all, her middle name is Rose and the nickname fit her job description.

Weaver spent the last two of her teenage years as a “Rosie the Riveter” drilling flanges on the wings of B-25 bomber planes – the type flown in one of the earliest airstrikes against Japan after the Dec. 7, 1941, attacks on Pearl Harbor.

At 18, she boarded a bus by herself from her hometown of Lebanon, Mo., and traveled to Kansas City, Kan., where she joined thousands of factory workers at the North American Aviation plant. The factory was open around the clock, and produced more than 6,000 B-25s throughout the war.

“People were so patriotic then and everybody wanted to do what they could to help win the war,” said Weaver, now 80. “We worked long hours. Sometimes we worked overtime, and seven days a week.”

Weaver was among the millions of women during World War II who filled industrial jobs left vacant by men who went off to fight. The movement is symbolized by a popular wartime Norman Rockwell poster, which features an image of Rosie the Riveter flexing her muscles in a blue work shirt with rolled-up sleeves.

Weather permitting, Weaver will take off this morning for the second ride of her life on a B-25 bomber that she could have built more than 60 years ago.

At 7:30 a.m., Weaver is scheduled to board the B-25 – “Show Me” – based at a hangar maintained by the Commemorative Air Force Missouri Wing at Smartt Field in St. Charles, Mo. She will be flown to an airport in Olathe, Kan., and shuttled to a 60-year reunion at a museum in Bonner Springs, Kan., for former employees of the North American Aviation plant.

The B-25 is a twin-engine, propeller plane classified as a medium bomber in World War II. The plane is often called the “Mitchell Bomber,” named after Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, a proponent of air power in war.

The Show Me rolled off the assembly line in 1944. It never flew in combat but was used for many years to train pilots. The Missouri Wing has had custody of the B-25 since the group formed in 1980. In 1999, Boeing gave the plane a paint job designed to withstand 2,000 mph speeds even though the B-25’s top speed won’t exceed about 275 mph, said Julieann Smith, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Wing. The company promised to repaint the plane for free if the paint ever wears off.

“They belch, they cough and they smoke,” Smith said. “They truly don’t sound like they should fly. You just don’t think it’s going to go, and once it goes, it’s a beautiful sound. It’s the most spectacular thing you’ll ever hear.”

Harry Desko, 86, of Wilborn, Kan., has organized the “bomber builders” reunion every year since 1988. Desko and his wife, Alice, both worked at the plant during the war. The annual reunion has drawn as many as 165 former bomber builders in one year, Desko said, but attendance has declined over the years as former plant employees have grown older and died. He estimated 50 to 75 bomber builders would attend today’s reunion.

After World War II ended, Weaver returned to Lebanon, married and raised three children. Weaver’s first flight on the Show Me was in October 1999 after her family surprised her by buying her a membership to the Commemorative Air Force. The membership was her ticket on the plane, Weaver said.

Today, she says just the sight of a B-25 brings back countless memories of the war, her friends who died in battle and her two years working in the factory.

“I still get a lump in my throat,” Weaver said. “I knew that I was doing some good and that I had a part in it – a small part in helping win the war.”