On the Home Front

By Nancy Coursen

Jean with friend Billy, circa 1945.

From 1942 to 1945, Jean Carrubba worked at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in Newark, New Jersey.  “We made circuit breakers for ships during the War [WWII]. Big ones.  When I started at Westinghouse I was only 22.  I went to school for three months to learn how to read blue prints and to use the tools; the tools we would use inserting wires in the breakers. There were 30 other men and women in my class.  The men were mostly 4 F men [men who were not able to join the military due to health concerns].”

“When I started working in the plant, I was assigned a cubicle.  There were 4 of us to a cubicle.  Each floor had many many cubicles.”  Jean raised her arms to show me the size of her floor of the plant. She gestured in a sort of as far as the eye could see gesture.

“All the breakers were made of metal in the welding department.  Several of the men had the job of cutting and building the breaker boxes that housed the wires.  They worked the hardest and often had to go to the nursing station for eye drops to clean out the debris in their eyes.  Every morning I assisted the nurse in the nursing station for a couple of hours before I went on to the floor to thread the wires.  Helping others in the nursing station was my favorite part of the job.  I loved that part.”

“The wires that we inserted in the breaker boxes were all color coded, so you knew which wires went where.  Each box was inspected by a Navy inspector.  I remember one poor inspector got burned pretty bad and had to be taken to the hospital after his leg got

Jean with grandson, John Coursen, at the NMAW Annual Open House.

caught on the cover of the box. The inspectors had a dangerous job.”

“We all loved the foremen. There was one foreman to each floor of the plant.  They were great guys.  All were trained electrical engineers.”

“Occasionally they would stop production when the Union people showed up.  We would all go outside for a little while to listen to what the Union people had to say.  They stood on a platform to talk to us workers.  The plant managers would also occasionally stop production to give us Pep Talks about how things were going with the war production.”

“When the war ended, we were all let go: men and women alike.  The plant started to immediately transfer back to its normal production” [the non-wartime function was to build apparatus for the generation, transmission and application alternating current electricity].

Jean Carrubba was married in June 1946 to Claude Milton Depew (“Milt”). He was in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers during WWII stationed in the Aleutian Islands.  He was also a sharp shooter, and precision marcher. He performed for one year for the post-war War Bond Tour.

Milton Depew, Jean’s husband, in uniform, circa 1945.

Jean and Milton Depew had 2 daughters, Patricia and Linda. The Depew family lived in Newton, New Jersey.  Milton Depew was a Charter Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #5360 in Newton, New Jersey.  Milton passed away in 1982.  Jean is still a card carrying member of VFW Post #5360.  She served many times as President of the Auxiliary, and as the District President.  She was also a two-time State Flag Bearer for New Jersey, and a one-time Chairman for the State Cancer Program.

Jean Carrubba Depew turned 87 in April 2009 and now resides in Springfield, Virginia, with her daughter Linda Depew.  Her other daughter, Patricia Wirth, lives nearby in Fairfax Station, Virginia, with her husband Jerry.

Jean standing next to her NMAW display.

Jean marching in a parade in the 1970s.