During World War II, while around 16 million American men served overseas, over 6 million women entered the workforce for the first time to indirectly support the war effort.
Lorraine Koons, a native of Cleona, was one of these women, working at Middletown Air Depot and repairing B-17 bombers and C-47 cargo planes from 1942 to the war’s end in 1945.
“We replaced gas tanks, repaired oxygen systems, oil systems, and any holes from bullets,” Koons told LebTown in 2021.
Read More: Cleona’s Lorraine Koons embraced ‘Rosie The Riveter’s’ call to wartime service
Now 102 years old, Koons – who graduated from Lebanon High School in 1940 – has received the Rosie the Riveter Congressional Medal of Honor.
The medal, named for the allegorical woman gracing “We Can Do It” wartime posters, was distributed to the real-life women who supported war efforts at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in April.
However, Koons, who rarely leaves The Lebanon Valley Home these days due to mobility issues, only received hers this month.
Koons’ friend Bonnie Shank explained over email that she recently visited Koons with photos of the Historical Society’s Women’s History Exhibit (which is still open to the public during Historical Society’s operating hours).
Read More: Commission for Women, Historical Society open Women’s History Exhibit
At that time, Shank said Koons had just received her medal, and that she was “elated to have the medal and recognition in the exhibit and was beaming with pride.”
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