{"id":5561,"date":"2023-05-11T17:40:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T22:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=5561"},"modified":"2023-05-11T17:40:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T22:40:39","slug":"plant-employees-joined-in-war-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/plant-employees-joined-in-war-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant Employees Joined in War Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was late October 1944. The end of World War II was still months away \u2014 May 8, 1945, marked V-E Day in Europe, and August 14, 1945 for V-J Day in the Pacific Front. According to the NOW newsletter I recently uploaded to the Portal to Texas History<\/a>, R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. \u2014 then with plants in Peoria, Illinois, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Tournapull, Georgia and Stockton, California \u2014 had 2,161 employees in the armed services. The eight-page company newsletter went out to \u201ceveryone connected with R.G. LETOURNEAU, INC.\u201d And anyone interested in subscribing could have copies mailed to them for free by writing the editor, based in Peoria.<\/p>\n

R.G. LeTourneau, Inc., built earthmoving equipment, much of which was used by the U.S. armed forces in the war effort \u2014 equipment such as the Tournapull (a version of LeTourneau\u2019s surname graced much of the equipment he invented), which was a giant scraper, or the Tournacrane. LeTourneau equipment supplied the military with 50% to 70% of the earthmoving equipment and engineering vehicles used by Allied force.<\/p>\n

In late 1944, R.G. LeTourneau, the company\u2019s founder and a true force of nature, was still about two years away from opening a plant in Longview and buying the Harmon Hospital campus left vacant at war\u2019s end. That site became what is now LeTourneau University, where I have worked more than five years in the library and helping sort through the company\u2019s voluminous archival collection. With the help of an able graduate student and our partnership with the Portal, we are ne\"\"<\/a>arly finished providing the metadata to more than 1,200 issues of NOW. Most of them are already visible on the Portal, so go take a look if you are interested.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This issue caught my eye. Most issues I just fill in the missing information: issue date, editor\u2019s name, other contributors, publish the issue and move on to the next one. But a \u201cFighting Front Page\u201d logo at top of one page made me pause and print the issue for closer examination. Here are some excerpts:<\/p>\n