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Before there could be a first female Thunderbird pilot or women
flying combat missions into Iraq and Afghanistan, there were the
pioneers: the Women's Airforce Service Pilots of World War II.
In September 1942, nine months after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
Army Air Forces commander Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold stood up the
Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, or WAFS, and the Women's Flying
Training Detachment, or WFTD.
According to the Air Force
Historical Support Division, On July 5, 1943, the WAFS and WFTD
merged into a single unit for all women pilots who were rapidly
extending their qualifications to every type of aircraft in service.
The new unified group called itself the Women's Airforce Service
Pilots, or WASP, with its pilots known as WASPs.
Graphic by Sylvia Saab
Training
The women paid
their own way to travel to basic training at Avenger Field in
Sweetwater, Texas. More than 25,000 women applied, even some from
Canada, England and Brazil, said Bernice “Bee” Falk Haydu, a WASP
pilot from Montclair, New Jersey, but only 1,830 U.S. women were
accepted into the program. Of those, 1,074 earned their wings.
To qualify, applicants had to be at least 5 feet, 4 inches tall,
pass Army physicals and have a pilot's license, Haydu said. Women
also had to have at least a high school diploma and be age 18 to 35.
“Most of the women were college graduates, but the toughest part
of the training was you started out in a basic aircraft and then
you'd go to a medium and then an advanced,” Haydu said.
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February 20, 2016 - Bernice Haydu, a Women Airforce Service Pilot,
or WASP, during World War II, stands next to an AT-6 Texan at Page
Field near Fort Myers, Florida. The WASPs flew Texans during flight training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.
(DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Glenn Slaughter)
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When
she joined the WASP program in 1944, Haydu said training was being
accelerated.
“They wanted to experiment with the women to see
if they could eliminate one of the phases of training, so we went
from the Stearman, which is an open cockpit biplane, in primary
[training], and after about 60 to 70 hours of that, we went directly
into the advanced, which was the AT-6 [Texan] -- that's 650
horsepower comparted to 220 horsepower,” she said. “It was
successful. Most of the washouts were in primary training. The men
adapted the same training.”
During training, the women had to
pay for their dress uniforms and their room and board, but were
issued men's coveralls that they nicknamed “zoot suits,” Haydu said.
There were six women per bay in the barracks, with one latrine, one
sink, one shower and one toilet. If the winds kicked up, the women
would lie on the bottom wings of the airplanes to help keep them
down, she said, “because they needed more weight to keep the
airplanes on the ground.”
Missions
After graduating, the women would go to either Ferrying Command
or Training Command. Lucile Doll Wise was a pilot at Ferrying
Command, and she said she ferried aircraft from factories to air
bases and points of embarkation.
“There was an alarming
shortage of pilots at the beginning of the war,” Wise said, “and we
delivered more than 12,000 aircraft in the two years we operated. We
also performed many other domestic flying duties.”
“I loved
every minute of it,” she added, “but it was not easy. It was hard
work, and I came back from trips pretty tired.”
Haydu served
as an engineering test pilot and a utility pilot in the Training
Command, where the women's missions ranged from towing aerial
targets for the infantry, flying tracking missions, smoke-laying,
searchlight strafing and simulated bombing, and testing
radio-controlled aircraft. The women were also flight instructors,
engineering test pilots and utility pilots and performed all
stateside flying duties.
“If an engine needed to be flown a
certain manner for a certain number hours before it went into
regular service, I would do that,” she said. “I also would fly
personnel to wherever they had to go.”
Haydu said she was
disappointed when the WASPs were disbanded on Dec. 20, 1944, just 11
days before she was to begin training to fly the B-25 Mitchell
bomber. The last class graduated Dec. 7, 1944.
Arnold told
the last crop of pilots, “We of the [Army Air Forces] are proud of
you; we will never forget our debt to you.”
According
to the Air Force Historical Support Division, the WASPs ferried more
than 50 percent of the combat aircraft within the United States
during the war years and flew at 126 bases across the country.
Thirty-eight of these women died in their service: 11 in training
and 27 during missions
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Women Airforce Service Pilots, left to right, Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn at Lockbourne Army Air Field, Ohio, 1944. These women pilots were some of the first to ferry B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers. More than 1,000 WASP provided essential military air support in the United States during World War II.
(U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)
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Doing ‘Everything the Men Did'
“We flew every aircraft manufactured for World War II, and one
of the WASPs was sent to Dayton, Ohio, where they did testing and
actually flew a prototype jet, so we just did everything the men
did,” Haydu said.
For
example, Betty Tackaberry Blake, who flew tourists in Hawaii in an
open cockpit biplane before World War II, was in the first class of
the WFTD. Later, while in the service of the WASPs, she flew all of
the fighter aircraft in the U.S. inventory and also the B-25
Mitchell, B-26 Marauder and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and C-47
Skytrain cargo aircraft, as well as all of the trainers. She also
flew four-engine aircraft. After the WASPs were disbanded, she
became a Link trainer instructor, where she taught instrument flying
on the ground.
The first WASP to be killed in action was
Cornelia Fort, 24, of Nashville, Tennessee, who died in a mid-air
collision in Texas. In an interview before her death, she said she
became a WASP because of her commitment to serving her country and
because she was in the attack on Pearl Harbor as a civilian pilot.
Her Interstate Cadet was riddled with bullets, though the Japanese
invaders missed the gas tank. She said she lost friends that day.
“Delivering a trainer to Texas may be as important as delivering
a bomber to Africa if you take the long view,” Fort said. “We are
beginning to prove that women can be trusted to deliver airplanes
safely and in the doing, serve our country, which is our country
too.”
She said she realized the importance of their mission
because of an event at her graduation.
“While we were
standing at attention, a bomber took off, followed by four fighters.
We knew that bomber was headed across the ocean and that the
fighters were going to escort it part way. As they circled over us,
I could hardly see them for the tears in my eyes,” Fort said.
“It was striking symbolism, and I think all of us felt it. As
long as our planes fly overhead, the skies of America are free and
that's what all of us everywhere are fighting for,” she continued.
“And that we, in a very small way, are being allowed to help keep
that sky free is the most beautiful thing I have ever known. I'm
profoundly grateful that my one talent, flying, happens to be of use
to my country.”
The Fight for
Recognition
The women were initially paid as civil
service employees, with the promise that they may be able to join
the Army Air Service afterward.
Arnold told the WASPs, “We have not been able to build an
airplane that you can't handle. It is on the record that women can
fly as well as men.” He planned to commission the women pilots as
second lieutenants within the Army Air Force, but political
opposition meant the plan never came to fruition. As a result, the
WASPs were left without the benefits to which veteran's status would
have entitled them, and the families of the girls who had been
killed in the performance of their duties were denied the gratuities
which they would have received as beneficiaries of military
personnel.
For 35 years, the women weren't allowed to call
themselves veterans and their records were classified and sealed
from the public. They fought Congress and pushed for publicity.
Haydu said they didn't care as much about the benefits as much as
for the chance to serve and to be recognized as veterans.
When the first women began to enter the service academies in 1976
and to fly military aircraft, contemporary media reports indicated
that it was the first time women could fly for the U.S. military.
Haydu was president of the WASP veterans' organization at the
time, and members lobbied and spoke to the media until their service
was finally recognized by Congress.
The legislation “became
the only piece of legislation in history to be co-sponsored by every
woman member in Congress,” she said. “One of the long overdue items
included in the WASP bill was for the women telephone operators of
World War I to be recognized as war veterans. They had never been
given this status, in spite of the fact they were stationed in the
front line trenches side-by-side with the fighting soldiers.”
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Campaign medals received by the Women Airforce Service Pilots program are displayed during the opening of the "Fly Girls of World War II" exhibit at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Va., Nov. 14, 2008.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael J. Carden)
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Victory at Last
What
sealed the deal, Haydu said, was the
WASPs in their Santiago blue uniforms descending on Washington after
sending letters and telegrams, making telephone calls and pushing
publicity in their home towns.
President Jimmy Carter signed
Public Law 95-202, Title IV, on Nov. 23, 1977, which granted former
WASPs veteran status with limited benefits. The Air Force graduated
its first female pilots that same year. In 1984, the WASPs received
World War II Victory Medals and, for those who had served more than
one year, American Theater Ribbon/ American Campaign Medals.
On March 10, 2010, the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest
civilian award bestowed by Congress, was presented to the WASPs.
Haydu said she was tremendously proud and happy the WASPs finally
received their recognition.
Female
Pilots of the Future
Haydu said she enjoys sharing her
stories with Air Force service members and at Boys and Girls Clubs,
and said that during her speeches, her goal is to stress equality.
“It's not what sex you are,” she said. It's what you can do, and
if you can be successful at something that should be all that should
matter. You should pursue whatever it is you want, and you should
not allow people to say, ‘Oh, you can't do that.' Just do the best
you can and I hope you can make it.”
Both Wise and Haydu said they are
impressed by the female airmen of today.
“I'm so impressed by
what women pilots are doing today, flying combat missions,” Wise
said. “The military is not for everyone but it offers a great
opportunity to young women.”
“I admire the women who fly
today,” Haydu said. “The navigation has changed so much. There have
been huge improvements. All-women crews are just fantastic. They do
every job, from the loadmaster to the navigator to the pilot, to
every job that there is to be done in the aircraft. It just proves
that an airplane knows no sex. It doesn't know whether a man or a
woman is flying it.
By Shannon Collins
DOD News
Copyright 2016
Note: USA Patriotism! associated additional images with this
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