In 1943, my mother, Helen Wick, quit her job teaching Kindergarten in Iowa and moved to Los Angeles with a friend to help the war effort. They heard that Douglas Aircraft was hiring, so they applied and were given aptitude tests. Mother scored very high on writing skills, so she was placed in the time office and given operational manuals to proofread. She caught the eye of a good looking aeronautical engineer from Oklahoma, William McWhirt, and agreed to go out with him. They were married in Santa Monica in 1944 and she eventually returned to teaching Kindergarten in LA. I always knew that my parents met because of the war, and I’m very proud of both of them.