Women Pilots of WWII Inspired Generations
(March 13, 2010) |
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WASHINGTON, March 9, 2010 – Under clear blue skies, beneath
the spires of the U.S. Air Force Memorial here, military
aviators gathered today to pay homage to the achievements of
the first women to fly military aircraft during World War
II. |
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| Women Airforce Service
Pilots of World War II, military members and
guests salute a wreath and roses dedicated to
the 38 out of 1,102 women pilots who died during
service to their country during a ceremony at
the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., March
9, 2010. The ceremony was part of an event in
which all pilots will be awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal at the U.S. Capitol.
The women were civilian pilots and the first to
fly military aircraft under the direction of
U.S. forces. Fewer than 300 women are alive and
more than half were expected to attend the
events. |
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The memorial service and wreath-laying ceremony, with a
reception afterward, was a prelude to the March 10
presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the 1,102
pilots who served as Women Airforce Service Pilots during
World War II.
Retired U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Vivien Crea, the keynote
speaker at the service, told those assembled that by
answering America's call to duty in 1942, they gave birth to
a fledgling service that would become the WASPs with
achievements that would go on to inspire another generation
of women in the military.
“As aviators, you possessed an invaluable capability that
our nation desperately wanted,” Crea said. “You joined not
because you were great pioneers, but because of your great
sense of duty. You served America in its time of peril.”
Nearly 200 of the surviving women pilots attended the
ceremonies with family and friends, and family members
represented other pilots.
Thirty-eight of those women were honored with roses during
the memorial ceremony for having made the ultimate sacrifice
for their country during their service, and the 20th Fighter
Wing from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., performed a flyover in
the “missing man” formation.
The WASPs' service, and their ability to fly every type of
aircraft, Crea noted, prompted U.S. Air Force Gen. Henry
Harley “Hap” Arnold to declare, “ ‘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.' ”
Crea herself is an accomplished aviator, inspired by the
WASPs' service, serving for 36 years of active duty, most
recently as the 25th vice commandant of the Coast Guard. She
became the 21st and only female Ancient Albatross, a
designation given to the longest serving active duty Coast
Guard aviator. “It has taken over six decades for
our nation to recognize the unique service and valor of the
WASPs with the Congressional Gold Medal you shall receive
tomorrow,” Crea said. “But your true legacy is much more
vital, enduring and transformational than that honored piece
of gold. It is in the young women and men, from your peers
and your own children to today's youngest generation that
you have inspired with your patriotism.”
Crea said that because of the WASPs, there is a new
generation of women fighter pilots, lifesavers and warriors
“who enjoy the absence of any conception that they can't do
something because of a coincident of birth...that women are
equal partners in war as they are in peace.”
From 1942 to 1944, more than 25,000 women applied to the
WASP program, an Army Air Corps experiment to explore the
opportunity for women to serve as pilots and relieve men for
overseas duty; 1,102 women were accepted. The WASP were not
granted military status until 1977.
At a reception at the Women in Military Service Memorial
at Arlington National Cemetery after the service, Gen.
Norton Schwartz, U.S. Air Force chief of staff, said this
week's special events “take us back to another era, and not
merely to honor the past, but truly in a larger sense, also
to correct some of its errors. The well-deserved respect for
the WASPs is long overdue.”
Schwartz said it is important to celebrate the WASPs'
contributions, not only in wartime service, but for their
pivotal roles as women pioneers blazing a trail to the
military cockpit.
"Pioneers like you often had to endure persistent criticism,
which made your efforts ever more courageous, and your
achievements ever more substantial,” Schwartz told the
WASPs.
The legacy of the WASPs, he said, is that these accomplished
women went on to become leaders in civilian life “continuing
their noble efforts to vanquish societal limitations and
subtle forms of discrimination” and living the example of
what diversity can mean.
“You demonstrated that our great nation benefits most when
it rightly harnesses the abundant energy, the generosity,
the talents of all of its citizens, and you proved that far
greater strengths and vitality lie in inclusiveness,”
Schwartz said. |
Ola "Roxie" Rexroat and Maxine Flournoy, both former pilots
who flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, meet during
a reception to honor the 1,102 pilots at the Women in Military Service For
America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., March 9, 2010. |
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For Jan Nicolai, whose late aunt, Helen Jo
Severson, was in WASP Class 43-5, the days of
celebration of the WASPs' contributions is very
special. She carried roses and a photo of her
aunt to the memorial service.
“When she was inducted into the South Dakota Air
Hall of Fame, and in 2007 she received her star
on her grave site, we thought that was it,”
Nicolai said at the start of the memorial
service. “But this, this is magnificent.”
For many of the women who became WASPs, it was
their love of flying, as much as love of
country, that set them on a course that would
change their lives.
“When Lindbergh flew over the ocean, I was seven
years old, and I thought, ‘I want to be a pilot
some day,''” recalled Dolores Reed, 92, WASP
Class 44-1. “Not long after, |
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my dad spent a dollar and put me in the back of a plane. That was a lot of money
in The Depression. I could barely see over the seat. And when we landed, I said
‘I'm going to fly.'” |
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When she started working, Reed paid $8 per hour for flying
lessons, and with 35 hours of flying under her belt, she
applied to be a WASP. “I did aerial gunnery. I flew targets
four hours a day while the boys sharpened their skills,” she
said.
Reed also set her sights on her squadron commander –
marrying him and raising three children. She continued
flying after the WASP was disbanded, taking up air racing.
Her friend Josephine Swift, 92, also Class 44-1, said she
was hooked on flying after her brother, a Navy pilot, took
her up in the air. She got her private license and worked
for a flying service and jumped at the chance to be a WASP.
“I just applied and they accepted - that was the secret,
getting accepted,” she said.
For Swift, the two days of ceremonies marked an opportunity
to reminisce with old friends, and miss the ones who had
passed on.
Carol Brinton Selfridge, 92, Class 44-5, said flying was
something she just had to do after following the
achievements of Amelia Earhart and test pilot Jacqueline
“Jackie” Cochran as a child. Sibling rivalry played its part
as well, she recalled. “My brother flew, and I don't let my
brother get ahead of me,” Selfridge said.
When she joined the WASPs, she had two children, who were
cared for by her mother while she flew. Her husband, who
worked for Lockheed, could not serve, and Selfridge recalls
he told her “I can't go, so you might as well.”
After the WASPs disbanded, she went on to have two more
children, and she now has a granddaughter in the U.S. Air
Force
“It means a lot to me to see them recognized,” said U.S. Air
Force Lt. Col. Christy Kayser-Cook, Selfridge's
granddaughter, who is assigned to Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
“I got interested in flying because of my grandmother's
experience, but I think a lot of people haven't heard of the
WASPs before.”
Selfridge, however, remains modest about her own
achievements and instead conveys pride in her
granddaughter's accomplishment. “I don't know why they're
making so much of us because I loved every minute of the
flying,” Selfridge said.
For Jeannette Goodrum, Class 43-8, the service, reception
and anticipation of the March 10 award ceremony were
“exhilarating.”
“It's the greatest story of all to see young people who
graduated from the Air Force Academy because of what we did
in 1942,” she said.
One of those young people was U.S. Air Force Maj. Nicole
Malachowski, the first female Thunderbird pilot, who was
among the guest speakers at the reception.
Malachowski, who was one of the leaders of the movement to
have the WASPs awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, said the
WASPs' story “helped write my story.”
As a child, she said, she wanted to be a fighter pilot, but
few took her seriously. In 1986, her parents took her to the
Smithsonian, where there “was a small display in a dusty
back room” about the WASPs, and proof that she could achieve
her own dreams.
As a Thunderbird performing in her third air show,
Malachowski recalled how five WASPs elbowed their way to the
front of the line to meet her and get her autograph.
“I made a beeline for them, and before I could get a word
out of my mouth, they were thanking me for my service,” she
said. “Here are my heroes, and they're thanking me. They
redefined what's possible for women who want to serve their
country.” |
Article by Carol L. Bowers
DoD photos by Linda Hosek
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2010 |
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Photos > Honoring WWII Women Pilots - March 2010
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