Not Steven Vincent Benet

But it could be, with a little tweaking of the language:  

The men and women who built the B-29 were legion. One of Bert Stiles’s girlfriends was among them; another was a spry little lady who came to the gates of the Bell plant in Marietta the day it opened, having walked from the cottage down the road where she lived. She was vague about her age, but it must have been around seventy-five. She was the widow of a Confederate officer and her name was Mrs. James Longstreet. Her husband had commanded First Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia, the “good right arm” of Bobby Lee. Mrs. Longstreet worked the 7:00 A.M. shift, never late, never absent; she was there two years.

Thus Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief, again.

From what I know of him, my guess is that “Gloomy Pete” would probably have approved.