On The Morality of Factory Work

I work as an Electroless Nickel Plating Technician plating CBN and Natural Diamond superabrasives onto grinding wheels that cut gears for aerospace, food processing, and industrial equipment. However, I had some parts come into my lab from a company I've never heard of: Sikorsky Aircraft Company. I'll save you a click, or a quick search into your search engine of choice and tell you who Sikorsky's parent company is: Lockheed-Martin.

Immediately I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of having to strip and re-plate parts for war profiteers. My coworker attempted to comfort me that I am but a simple cog in the machine who shouldn't feel responsible for what happens with my product after I'm done with it. Though that only left me with thought: are we not all responsible for what we create if what we create is being used exactly as intended?

To explain what I mean, let me provide the following example: Microwaves (stay with me here) are designed to heat up / cook food, yet there are people that take the transformer out of microwaves for fractal wood burning. The transformers are built for the microwaves, not for fractal wood burning; those that make the transformers are not responsible for people hurting themselves by removing the transformer for the dangerous practice of fractal wood burning. This is a product being used incorrectly and not for its intended purpose.

That is not the case for the product I am making for Sikorsky. I am making a product that will cut parts for helicopters that, very likely, will be used to commit genocide. The product will be used exactly as intended, and I will be responsible for having made that product. Will I be no different from the train conductors driving the trains to and from camps in Nazi-occupied Europe? Or the soldiers "following orders?"