Parachutes for their Sons

At Pioneer Parachute is was really possible to pack a parachute for your son

By Claire Stafford b. 1936

My Aunt Marie worked at the Pioneer Parachute Company in Manchester, Connecticut.  Pioneer was the first company to use nylon instead of silk for parachutes.  It was an important factory for the war effort.  Mostly women worked there making and packing parachutes that paratroopers would use.

A woman named Adeline Gray who worked there tested the first nylon parachute by jumping out of a plane.

My Aunt Marie told me that women had to put their name and identification number on the chutes they worked on and that one woman’s chute actually got to her own son.  She wasn’t sure it was true but it didn’t matter because every woman felt she had to do her best because somebody’s son’s  life depended on her.