Ann Karlson Kenney loved being a WASP!

by Christina Leigh Burns

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="960.0"] Ann Karlson Kenney in her open cockpit plane. (Photo: Kenney family) [/caption]

Ann Karlson Kenney learned to fly in the Chicago area Civil Air Patrol before becoming a Link Trainer instructor for the Navy pilots in Atlanta. In 1942, she graduated from the WASP training and was assigned to ferried planes in Wilmington, Delaware, after which she worked towing gliders training to land quietly behind enemy lines in preparation for the D-Day invasion.

On learning to fly solo in the C-60 Lockheed Lodestar, Kenney said, "What a thrill it was to take that big plane up as first pilot". In Texas, Kenney also towed targets for gunnery practice.  Over the years, she loved to talk about her time as a WASP flying the P-40, B-26, B-17, C-60 Lockheed Lodestar, and the AT-6.

Kenney's grandson, Kent Hamm, recalls, "One of my favorite stories is of her crash landing of a P-40 Warhawk in Tennessee. This story is not noted in her journal, nor was she proud that she crashed this plane, but the unbelievable experience of crash landing a P-40 Warhawk and surviving to tell her grandson about it 50 years later is truly a unique story and one I'll never forget. 

The carburetor iced up, which resulted in engine trouble. She told me of a farmer's field she saw that could provide a decent landing area. She set the plane down in this field and was rescued by a local who was very surprised to find a women in this military war plane as pilot.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="262.0"] The Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhark. (Photo: WWII Archives) [/caption]

I recently discovered that this experience is in fact documented by the USAF. My mother has copies of the investigation reports. The crash investigation reports note icing in the engine carburetor as the main cause of the accident. The reports also states the witnesses of her crash, the sights and sound of the failing engine. Also the circling of the airplane to find a suitable landing sight.

Not many women have flown a P-40, even less could say the survived a crash landing in the same plane."

Ann Kenney passed away in 1996; however, her legacy lives on with stories she left behind with friends and family and her detailed journal that chronicles her time as a WASP. Her family accepted a Congressional Gold Medal on her behalf at the ceremony in 2010.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500.0"] Ann Karlson Kenney (Photo: Kenney family) [/caption]