Army-Navy "E" Production Award pin

Archive #44-178-A, 44-179-A

On October 6, 1944, the North American Aviation Plant in Fairfax, Kansas was presented with the Army-Navy "E" Production Award. This award was presented to the Fairfax plant for excellence of production of war equipment. The Fairfax plant was one of only 4,283 plants to receive the award. This represented about 4% of companies producing equipment as part of the war effort.

The conversion of the Fairfax plant from assembly to manufacturing resulted in a significant reduction in cost of the bomber to the government. In the first eight months of 1944, that reduction amounted to an astounding 26.5%. At that time, the Kansas plant led North American both in job presence and safety. In August of 1944, the Kansas plant had a safety frequency of a mere 3.8 lost-time accidents per million man hours. That is compared to 5.4 for Inglewood and 6.7 for Dallas. With approximately 24,000 employees, the plant had a minimal 4% absentee rate for the week of September 15, 1944 through September 22, 1944.

As of September of 1944, more than 4,300 B-25D-NC and B-25J-NC bombers had flown from the North American-Kansas Plant to battlefronts all over the world. An equivalent in spare parts of over 700 additional bombers was also produced to keep the B-25 fleet in the air. The modification center had processed over 5,500 bombers. This includes the conversion of several dozen B-25C-NA into B-25G-NA bombers. Although the plant had started out as an assembly center, they eventually were manufacturing about 62% of the parts needed to assemble each bomber as well as performing the necessary assembly.

The Army-Navy "E" Production Award pin was given to all plant employees on October 6, 1944. We have 2 pins in our archives. Both pins are enamel over sterling silver. Pin 44-178-A is slightly smaller than 44-179-A.

• Artifact Description: Army-Navy "E" Production Award pin
• B-25 History Project Archive #: 44-178-A, 44-179-A
• Acquired from: Former Fairfax bomber plant employee
• Acquisition Date: Original Archive