An original "Rosie the Riveter," women who helped build fighter planes during World War II, is celebrating her 95th birthday on Long Island.

Sophie Sarro, of Huntington Station, says patriotism propelled her to enlist in the war effort by working at Grumman Aircraft in Bethpage. Sarro, then 30, was one of 6 million "Rosie the Riveters" nationwide.

"When I went to work they said, 'Look, you go do this and do that,'" says Sarro. "I had to do this and do that. I had to do what they told me.

"We worked 50 cents an hour at the time, 10 hours a day, seven days a week. That's what we did."

Sarro says defense work was considered a man's job prior to World War II. But if enough fighter planes were to reach American servicemen overseas, their wives and mothers, sisters and sweethearts had to build them.

"I was doing a good deed, that's for sure," Sarro says.