When I first read the ad, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I couldn't help but wonder if the copy writer had ever set foot in the Clinton Engineer Works/Tennessee Eastman Corporation (hereinafter "CEW/TEC") project area, much less worked there, eaten there, slept there, or glanced around at the surroundings. The ad copy appeals to the reader's sense of patriotism, which in the early 1940's was abundant. It even goes so far as to compare CEW workers to soldiers. The opening sentence echoes a line from General George S. Patton's well publicized speeches to the Third Army which he gave frequently beginning in February, 1944:

 

"There is one great thing you men will all be able to say when you go home. You may thank God for it. Thank God, that at least, thirty years from now, when you are sitting around the fireside with your grandson on your knees, and he asks you what you did in the great war, you won't have to cough and say, 'I shoveled shit in Louisiana.'"

- George S. Patton's Speech to the Third U.S. Army, http://www.knox.army.mil/museum/pattonsp.htm

 

Due to the extreme secrecy and security touching every aspect of the Manhattan Project in general, and in this case, the CEW project in particular, the ad mentions nothing whatsoever about either the nature of the project, nor the specific job assignments available. Besides the general appeal to patriotism, the ad makes seven specific promises to any woman who accepting employment with CEW:

 

1. clean work,

2. in a clean war plant,

3. for excellent pay,

4. adequate food,

5. good housing,

6. interesting surroundings, and

7. pride of service to the war effort.

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I will discuss my take on the promises made in this ad later. Suffice it to say for now, that ads like this one**, along with the similar canned pitches of personnel recruiters, were successful in persuading thousands of women and men to sign on with CEW/TEC, and my parents were two of the many thousands who did just that.

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** A Newpapers.com search of the phrase "Clinton Engineer Works" for the year 1944 results in 1,110 hits. Not surprisingly, Tennessee, has the lion's share with 818 hits, followed by New York with 76 hits, Virginia with 27 hits, North Carolina and Ohio with 20 hits each, Missouri with 15 hits, Kentucky and Pennsylvania with 14 hits each, Alabama with 10 hits, Indiana and Texas with 9 hits each, Florida with 8 hits, Georgia with 7 hits, Louisiana, South Carolina and Washington with 6 hits each, Wisconsin with 5 hits, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, Utah, and Vermont with 3 hits each, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Oregon with 2 hits each, and California, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota with 1 hit each.