Enthusiasm for buying war bonds at Hanford was flagging in 1944.
Workers had migrated from across the nation to the dust-blown, barren Eastern Washington desert for a World War II project so secret they didn’t know what they were building.
From the paychecks they earned for long days of work, they were urged to buy war bonds—another sacrifice for the war.
Workers were still buying bonds, but sales were dropping, said Robert Franklin, history instructor and archivist with the Washington State Tri-Cities’ Hanford History Project.
A new campaign rekindled their enthusiasm.
“Give a day’s pay and send a bomber on its way,” they were urged.
The 44,300 workers at the Hanford Engineering Works donated enough of their pay to cover the $300,000 cost of a B-17 Flying Fortress.