The RED DOOR Films: WASP-Past

Showing posts with label WASP-Past. Show all posts

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Captola "Cappy" Johnson Helped Get Her Fellow WASP the Recognition They Deserved

by Warren Whittaker Hinkle

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="295.0"]

Captola Johnson, WASP 43-W-6 (Photo: Warren Whittaker Hinkle) [/caption]

"My aunt Cappy Whitaker Johnson, passed away on March 18. She was 95 years old and in another month would have been 96. She was a special woman like so many women are to their families. However, she was a very special woman to her country as one of the 1,074 Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, who were the first women in history trained to fly American military aircraft.

Several years ago I interviewed Aunt Cappy on her service as a WASP. She was very proud of the part that she was able to play in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. The WASP was opened for women who already had pilot's licenses so that they would need less training than someone who didn't already know how to fly. She shared her love of flying with her big brother, my dad. The two would save every penny they could to rent a plane in Beckley, W. VA., at the Mount Hope Airport to go flying."

Rad more of Reporter Warren Whittaker Hinkle's tribute to her "Aunt Cappy" in this special segment (download PDF) to The Voice Newspaper.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Women Airforce Service Pilots 1943 - Unusual Occupations Series

"Time is the very essence of their work . . . In PT19 they learn the Army way, each girl is a pilot when she comes, she must adjust herself to the new technique, hairdo's are sacrificed." ‪

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE0Q40Yzjg0&w=420&h=315]

Thursday, June 23, 2016

"My Mom was one of the very few great women..."

by Rich Williams & Marleen Williams

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="193.0"]

Lesley Jackson Stroud Williams (Photo: Texas Woman's Univ) [/caption]

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Lesley Jackson Stroud Williams was born April 18, 1918 in Ocala, Florida. She was a descendant of William Strothers Jr. (1630-1702) whose direct descendants include General George S. Patton and U.S. Presidents John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Jimmy Carter. Lesley grew up in Jacksonville and after graduating high school in 1936, went to work for Southern Bell. She had been saving money with plans to attend the 1939-40 New York World's Fair but when her supervisor wouldn't give her the time off, she decided to take flying lessons at Laurie Yonge's Flying Service at Hart Field in Jacksonville. There she met and began dating Norman "Pete" Williams. Sometimes they combined dates with their solo flying hours, often landing on the beach, having a picnic and swimming, then each getting back in their own plane to fly back.

Lesley soloed on July 17, 1940 (before Pete) and subsequently obtained her private pilot license (also before Pete). I found a CAA fingerprint card for private pilot license for her dated May 19, 1941. She was also a member of the Jacksonville unit of Women's National Aeronautical Association.

In 1942, Lesley obtained her commercial pilot's license, and married Pete on December 12. At that time, Pete was an Army Air Corps cadet. He was soon sent to the European theater, flying Martin B-26's.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="716.0"]

Lesley's invitation to join the WASP Photo credit: Rich Williams) [/caption]

In January 1944, Lesley was accepted into the WASP program and traveled to Sweetwater Texas, possibly the first time she had been out of the state of Florida. She graduated with class 44-W-6 on August 4, 1944, with a CAA license for commercial airplane, single/multi engine land with Instrument rating.

Heading off to Texas by herself in 1944 reflected an independence that carried on. As the wife of a career Air Force pilot, she often had to travel alone or with small children, to foreign countries, because dad had gone on ahead with orders. She did not speak the languages of the countries, but I remember her getting on a travel train to another town to visit a friend or to shop. There was no hesitation -- she really seemed to enjoy it. And she always treated LIFE as an adventure, something to be explored and enjoyed. It was her spirit!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="349.0"]

(Photo credit: Rich Williams) [/caption]

Lesley knew Pete would be coming home via the East coast so she requested an East coast base. She was assigned to Shaw Army Air Base, South Carolina, where she ferried planes all over the country. Usually, the ladies delivered a plane then caught the next transport to their home base but mom said often when she got to her destination she would be given another plane to deliver somewhere else. This might happen three or four times, turning a one-day trip into four before returning to Shaw.

After the war, Pete left the Army Air Corps for a few years, but was recalled into the Air Force and made it a career. Traveling around the world and having 3 children, left little opportunities for private flying and Lesley gradually stopped flying after 1954. She remained an adventurous and independent lady until her illness and death in 1997 at the age of 79.

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My Mother was very smart and extremely humorous, she was fashionable yet thrifty, she was very, very compassionate and loving. None of us can choose our parents when we come into this world, but my sisters and I were extremely lucky to have the ones we had. Growing up I never knew I had a Mom I could brag about for her flying career and service to the country. I guess I was just too busy growing up. I can remember sitting at the dinner table thinking Mom really likes chicken necks, livers, and the smaller cuts of meat. It was much later that I realized I was witnessing one of the lessons of parenthood done right. My Mother was making small sacrifices so I could eat the cuts of chicken I liked and the larger pieces of meat. All in all, I must have learned the lesson because I found myself doing the same as I became a parent.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400.0"]

Rich Williams holds a scrapbook full of photos of his mother as a WASP (Photo credit: Air Force/Keith Keel) [/caption]

My Mother was great at teaching life lessons by living life lessons. I came from two very great parents, both were pilots in service to the country. My parents grew up during hard times and taught my sisters and I the meaning of frugality, charity, love, and family. My Mother taught me to cook and how to appreciate inexpensive wine, not cheap bad wine, inexpensive good wine! Mom taught me to stretch every penny when necessary, and together with Dad, she taught me to save and invest for the future. Everything I am I owe to my parents. I had more time with my Father, I wish I had told my Mother how much I loved and appreciated her while she was with us. My Mom was one of the very few great women, and she was a member of an organization of great women, my Mother was a WASP!

Lesley and Pete passed on a love for aviation to their children. Their daughter Marleen, a nurse, is a private pilot and member of the Ninety-Nines and son Richard, a B-52G navigator.

On October 21, 2010, Representative Cliff Stearns presented the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Lesley's husband Pete. He said, "Lesley Williams stepped forward when her nation called for volunteers to defend our nation, and we are all grateful for her service and that of her fellow members of the WASP."

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFEgcb0HzI&w=420&h=315]

Thursday, June 16, 2016

The WASP Experience In Their Own Words

Interview clips with the WASP from the film Blue Horizon by ArtReach International. The film debuted at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial on December 7, 2003.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz7a5vUjh1E&w=420&h=315]

Thursday, June 9, 2016

WASP Florence "Shutsy" Reynolds: "Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something..."

by Logan Walker

It was over eighty years ago on a day in Connellsville, Pennsylvania that Florence “Shutsy” Reynolds’ father informed her and her siblings that they should figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. “You’re too young”, he added, turning to his youngest, 7 year old Florence. When, undaunted, she answered “Dad, I want to learn to fly”, she was met with peals of laughter. It would take the passage of many years and the onset of a war, but Florence would have the last laugh.

Growing up in Connellsville, Florence Reynolds was fascinated with machines of flight, consuming every book about aviation that she could get her hands on and building hundreds of model airplanes with her brothers. Although her family was supportive of her ambitions, she was keenly aware of the limits of the society that she would need to pursue a career in as she graduated from high school. “It was a time when women were not even encouraged to go to work, let alone fly airplanes” Reynolds herself explained. Women in the workforce were expected to be nurses, schoolteachers or stenographers, but Florence chose to take aviation courses at a ground school.

In a class with forty men, many of whom were on their second or third attempt to pass examinations, she was unsure about her chances of making it into the five highest testing students, the requisite qualification for receiving a flight scholarship. Nonetheless, she took the classes, and emerged in the coveted top five, winning herself a scholarship and a chance at a career in the sky.

Even after this hurdle was crossed, Reynolds would have to fight to defend her hard won victory; staff members attempted to convince her to give up her scholarship spot to a lower-achieving male student, informing her that with the war coming up, men were needed in aviation rather than women who “(didn’t) fly”. An unimpressed Reynolds refused to yield the honor, replying “It’s mine, I earned it, by damn I’m gonna get it”. She did, and soon entered the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Connellsville Airport, becoming within a year the first female to receive a pilot’s license at the facility. Before receiving her license, Reynolds was required to sign a document promising that she would join the aviation military service in case of war. “That was a big joke at the airport that day. ‘Girls don’t fly.’ But I signed it. By damn I joined later on.”

It wasn’t long before the newly-licensed Reynolds learned about the WASP program through a news publication, and almost immediately set about petitioning the organization’s founder and director, Jackie Cochran, to accept her as a trainee. Although at 19 she was two years short of meeting the 21 year age requirement of all WASP members, Florence wrote to Cochran every week (the age limit would eventually be lowered). Finally, perhaps worn down by her persistence, she received a telegram inviting her to travel to Cleveland and then Harrisburg for an interview and physical, culminating in a final summons to the training ground at Avenger Field in December of 1943.

Having traveled all along on her own expense, Reynolds was met with some hard realities on her arrival in Texas, when an Army officer informed her, “You know of course, if you were a male you would be insured by the government, but because you’re an experiment, we’re keeping you on civilian status. You’ll have no insurance.” Later in her training, Reynolds would remember the mother of a fallen WASP visiting the base and reading aloud to a group of trainees the telegram she had recently received from the government. Florence remembered that it simply said "'Your daughter was killed this morning, where do we ship the body?’ I was floored. That didn’t mean I was going to quit, that thought never entered my mind. But this is what we lived with.”

Life at Avenger Field may not have been for everyone, but Reynolds adjusted to it with alacrity. Despite the tight living conditions that the girls found themselves in (“Can you imagine 12 girls getting up at 6 in the morning and sharing 1 bathroom?”), Florence found no element of competition among her fellow trainees. Instead, she and her WASP comrades found themselves exchanging information and forming friendships, some of which long outlived the end of the war. “The training was exactly like the men’s. And our living environment was also military…I fell in love with it, I loved military life. I thought it was great.”

Widely considered less than great were the makeshift WASP uniforms or “zoot-suits” as they were nicknamed among the girls. When it came to the limited fashion options of those days, “Nothing fit, they came in three sizes: big, big, and way too big.” When the time came to report measurements for the issuing of uniforms, Reynolds gave her size as a 12, and was met with the response “We have 42, 44 and 46”.

Being a woman in a job field usually occupied by men also had its challenges. “The men resented us and didn’t know what to do with us. You had to prove yourself on every flight,” as Reynolds put it, emphasizing in particular one Army captain who told her during a check ride during her training that “I don’t like women and I don’t like women pilots.”

Florence graduated from the WASP program and found herself transferred to Merced, California, carrying out a series of assignments that included flight testing planes, ferrying aircraft from repair stops, and transporting people and materials for the war effort. Flying consistently, often on more than one assignment a day, gave Florence the opportunity to do what she loved. This activity was in her words, “The closest thing to God. I’ve always felt that way. There’s nothing like it, especially when you’re on a solo flight.” Like so many other WASP, Florence’s daily activities also exposed her to a high level of danger and uncertainty; by her own admission “It was great. But it was hard work. You never knew if you were going to return alive.” In one instance, Florence was flying planes to the scrap yards when she noticed that one aircraft was marked with an "X". Seeing that a form listed the vessel as having a crack in its left wing, she asked the maintenance officer who was overseeing the operation how serious of a problem this could pose. Reynolds remembers that the man merely told her, “‘You either fly or you go home and I won’t talk anymore about it.’ So I flew it. Fortunately it didn’t come apart…He did tell me though, ‘You’ve got to remember, the WASP are expendable.’”

A more tragic mishap occurred in a plane that she assigned to fly one harrowing night. Mid-flight the electric system on the aircraft failed, and her instrument panel and navigation lights refused to work. With her skill, she managed to land the aircraft in the dark, only to learn that the WASP who flew it the next day was killed when the plane’s hydraulic line malfunctioned.

Reynolds received news of the demobilization of the WASP in 1944, before she was set to start training in B-26 bomber planes. Of the sudden disbandment of the program and the subsequent treatment that many WASPs received, Reynolds says that she “…felt betrayed. I mean, they de-activated us before the victory. We felt that we had contributed, even in a little way, we contributed.” Hoping to stay in the field of aviation, she applied for employment with airlines, but none would hire her as anything but a stewardess.

She describes feeling at this time, “like an old piece of garbage thrown away,” and would go on to claim, “After we were disbanded in the summer of 44’, everybody went their own way and took up different careers. Some of them never talked about flying again…nobody believed you anyway.” In her attempt to adjust to life outside of the WASP, Reynolds took on a series of jobs, working in her father’s auto repair shop, as an Army Air Force dispatcher in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and operating a flight training simulator in Anchorage, Alaska. She finally settled in Panama with her husband, taking a job at an Air Force office there, where she would remain for 16 years.

In the late 1980’s, following the deaths of her mother and husband, Reynolds drew on previous experience making custom jewelry and began running the WASP stores, designing and producing jewelry, scarves, photographs, prints, and other items themed around the WASP (although she is no longer leading the operation). In 1986 she even designed a WASP flag, decorated with 38 stars to signify the 38 fallen WASP pilots.

These days Reynolds works to promote knowledge about the WASP and the efforts of the many women who made up its ranks. She urges women today to, “keep dreaming. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, and always fly as high as you can.”

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Dolores Meurer Reed: Devoted WASP, Rebel and Microwave Critic

by Angela Noel

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Wham! The tree branch outside my grandmother’s San Diego condo attacked my forehead. I saw stars. Big ones. My boxes of clothes and books waited for transport indoors, but the unexpected tree ambush stopped me cold. Pay attention, it said, in the language of trees. You need to learn something.

Over the next three months I would sleep in her spare bedroom/office. On the desk and in boxes, letters and tax forms kept company with three-cent postcards of war planes ominously printed with the slogan, “The ENEMY is listening – don’t SAY it. The ENEMY can READ – Don’t WRITE it.”

Throughout her home, memories spilled from closets and corners. A trophy case at the top of the stairs held awards from the air races she had won, or almost won. A wooden propeller, the only surviving piece of a beloved plane destroyed by a storm, hung in the garage by a car she could no longer drive. She stowed vodka in the pantry and blocks of cheddar cheese in the freezer. Suspicious of the microwave, she refused to use it. Instead, she stored appliance manuals and unused cookbooks in it, unwilling to waste such a useful space.

Every Sunday she’d make eggs and toast for us. Over breakfast, she’d tell me stories of her days as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). Though spanning less than two years of her life, these heady days populated her thoughts for the almost seven decades to follow. The little girl who would become my grandmother fell in love with flying at six years old. Her father gave her a one-dollar bill to take a ride in a barnstormer biplane at Lambert Field in St. Louis. To pay for flying lessons, nineteen-year-old Dolores Meurer washed planes at the airfield, opened a dancing school, and modeled shoes. When Jackie Cochran called for female pilots to join the war effort, my grandmother, along with 25,000 other women, answered. On August 9, 1943 at the age of twenty-five, Dolores began her WASP training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. The rigors of training ensured only the best would earn their wings; less than one percent of those who applied graduated.

Dolores and her classmates spent their training days in classrooms, in the exercise yard, and in the air. Ground school for four hours every morning taught the hopeful aviators mathematics, meteorology, and physics, among other critical subjects.

“If you have a master’s it’s going to be pretty easy,” Dolores’ math teacher told his students one day. “If you just have a degree, you . . . Eh. If you don’t have a degree, it’s going to be tough.” My grandmother did not finish high school. She told me once, as we talked over eggs and weak coffee, she’d completed the seventh grade. Six-year-old Dolores in the biplane and twenty-five-year-old Dolores in the classroom embraced her love of flying to push fear of failure and insecurity aside.

Never one to turn down a party, my grandmother earned a nickname while at Avenger Field. Breaking curfew one night, she and several of her friends snuck back into the dorms. The officer of the day found the laughing group. To my grandmother she said, “Dolores, keep quiet or I’ll give you a demerit.”

“Oh, go ahead. Give me ten demerits,” Dolores replied.

The officer obliged.

Her classmates called her “Demerit Meurer” ever after.

Dolores’ determination and good humor saved her from many close calls. One week before graduation, while flying back from California to El Paso, her compass went crazy, becoming totally useless. Nearing the scheduled time of arrival and running low on gas with the airfield nowhere in sight, she had to make a choice. Taught never to land in mesquite because it tangled in the landing gear, but equally fearful of running out of fuel, she decided to land in the brush to ask for direction. Four men in sombreros, astride their horses, approached. They spoke no English. She’d accidentally landed in Mexico. “El Paso? El Paso?” she repeated, hoping. When they finally stopped laughing at her, they pointed the way home.

The next day, the crewman working on her plane said to her, “Mam, yew shure had a lot of mesquite in yer landin’ gear.”

She replied, “I’ll have to fly a little higher next time.” I imagine her winking at the crewman, smiling wide. Tomorrow, at least, would be another day to fly.

Always the threat of failure, or worse, accompanied their days. After 6 a.m. reveille, they headed from their dorm rooms unsure if they would return. Fifty-two women in Dolores’ class were cut—“washed out”—from training. Earning their wings, though, did not earn them safety. Thirty-eight women gave their lives as WASP, flying planes sometimes not fit to be flown.

On my grandmother’s first assignment in Hondo, Texas, the base closed temporarily due to a crash. “On my way to my room, the Catholic chaplain met me at the nurse’s quarters and said, ‘Dolores, I just came to give you last rites. According to the schedule on the board, you are the one.’” A quirk in the scheduling had placed Edie Keene in the doomed plane instead. Shaken and mourning, Dolores climbed into the cockpit the very next day. No time to stop for tears or “what ifs” she had a job to do.

To my grandmother, whose heart led her to fly, to dance, and to break rules of every description, I owe so much. She showed me how to answer the call of adventure, letting the party last until the sun rises to a new day. Dolores, my Grammy, taught me not to waste a single moment, or a good piece of tinfoil.

Yes, the tree might say. Now, don’t forget.

Angela Noel currently lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her blog, You Are Awesome, features posts about people, just like Dolores and her WASP friends, who invite adventure, creativity and passion into their lives every day. Follow her on twitter @angiewrite or check out her blog at www.angelanoelauthor.com.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Marching Songs Created Harmony and Unity Among the WASP

by Logan Walker

Who's that yonder flying like an ace?
She rides the skies with a lazy grace.
She's dressed in blue and her pride you can see.
No, you don't have to guess, you know it's W-3.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400.0"]

WASP marching in formation at a graduation ceremony, Avenger Field. (Photo credit: National WWII WASP Museum) [/caption]

So goes the WASP marching song “Do You Have Your Wings?" one of many tunes that echoed among the ranks of busy female flyers as they went about their daily activities.

Lieutenant Alfred Fleishman, March and Drill instructor for the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), once remarked, “A singing army is a fighting army” and his trainees and their successors did not fail to uphold this conviction with gusto. For the women of the WASP, singing was an important aspect of paramilitary life, one that helped recruits bond while providing a healthy dose of levity and fun.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTMy5O7E7Xc&w=420&h=315]

Most WASP compositions were popular songs of the day with lyrics re-written by the pilots themselves to better fit their particular experiences. These playful and sometimes saucy classics-in-the-making were then passed down through the classes, giving incoming pilots the opportunity to occasionally make their own mark with the lyrics.

One such song, “Deep in the Heart of Texas” is a variation of the popular 1941 standard of the same name. Recorded by crooners like Perry Como and Bing Crosby, it sung the praises of the Lone Star State, with such lyrics as:

The stars at night are big and bright
Deep in the heart of Texas
The prairie sky is wide and high
Deep in the heart of Texas

The ladies of the WASP expressed a more humorous take in their version:

We "darn" near freeze in these open PT's
Deep in the heart of Texas,
We're never at ease in these big BT's
Deep in the heart of Texas.
If you don't lock the latch, you'll fall out of the hatch
Deep in the heart of Texas,
If you don't relax you'll be in Air Facts,
Deep in the heart of Texas.

Even a cursory look at some of the lyrics from the WASP songbook give an observer the distinct impression of the boisterous and endearingly mischievous personalities that wrote and sang them. Not even Lieutenant Fleishman was safe from the playful sing-song of the WASP girls, appearing in a song set to the melody of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” that announced:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of my biceps bulging out,
Mine ears have heard the story of Lieutenant Fleishman's shout
My teeth have felt the gritty sand that we all gripe about
The 319th flies on!

Another spirited and infectious standard is “I’m a Flying Wreck”, adapted from “Ramblin Wreck from Georgia Tech”, a Georgia Institute of Technology fight song, circa 1908. Once WASP-ified, some of the lyrics, penned by Thelma P. Bryan (43-W-5) read:

I'm a flying wreck, a 'riskin' my neck and a helluva pilot too!
A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva pilot too!
Like all the jolly good flyers, the gremlins treat me mean
I'm a flyin' wreck, a 'riskin' my neck for the good ole 318!

If I had a PT sir, I'd paint it blue and gold,
I'd take it up 5000 feet and make the damned thing roll!
Oh, if I had a PT sir, I'd fly it off in the sky.
I'd circle over Germany and spit in the Fuehrer's eye!

Like many other of the tunes sung through camp, “Gee, Mom, I Wanna Go Home” poked fun at the Army lifestyle, with its references to coffee that “tastes like iodine” and chicken so sturdy it could kill on impact. A classic song often sung within the Armed Forces, “Gee Mom” was altered somewhat to fit the specific needs of the WASP girls but the broader strokes of the tune remain more or less the same.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn09m4X5AtQ&w=560&h=315]

One favorite, “Zoot Suits and Parachutes” paid tribute to the WASP uniform of loose mechanics overalls, nicknamed “Zoot Suits” by their less-than-enthused wearers. A re-worked version of the British song “Rosemary Lane”, “Zoot Suits and Parachutes” tends toward the bawdy in it’s recounting of a girl who is seduced and left pregnant by a pilot. Frequent salty language and allusions to such bawdy themes are not uncommon in WASP songs and reportedly did not always amuse director Jacqueline Cochran.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUE-91u9i5M&w=560&h=315]

Sometimes sung amongst the girls was the similarly risqué “Inky Dinky Parle-Vous”, known during WWI as “Mademoiselle from Armentieres”.

Another favorite, “Buckle Down, Fifinella” cheered on a figure familiar to the WASP. Fifinella, the female gremlin that served as a mascot for the pilots, was designed by Walt Disney based on a character originally devised by Roald Dahl in his book The Gremlins.

Buckle down, Fifinella, buckle down,
You can win, Fifinella, if you'll buckle down,
You can really fly, if you'll only try,
Take it way up high and bring it down.
Six to go, Fifinella, don't be slow,
Stay an eager beaver, you'll be in the show.
Don't get in a spin, take it on the chin,
And you're bound to win, If you will only buckle down.
If you fight, your luck will not retreat,
If you work, you'll overcome defeat,
Buckle down, Fifinella, buckle down,
Don't you frown, Fifinella, You'll get off the ground,
We'll count every day and we'll make it pay,
For we're here to stay,
Because we're gonna buckle down!

Fifinella, like her fellow gremlins in the story, aided the RAF in repairing British aircraft and fighting the Nazi threat. Fifinella lent her name to the WASP publication “The Fifinella Gazette”, and appeared on patches affixed to the jackets of numerous WASP as they went about their duties..

Here are a few more examples of WASP popular songs:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNkT9vZ34RU&w=550&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7BKz-E7tMs&w=550&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1-F9FJDwzc&w=560&h=315]

These and other WASP songs are available on Marching Songs of the WASP by Nancy Parrish & The Kappa Kappa Gamma Singers.

Lyrics courtesy of Texas Woman's University, U.S. Army Air Corps Living History Group, and Wings Across America.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Elaine Danforth Harmon Embodied the Spirit of "Carpe Diem"

by Tiffany Miller

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[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="256.0"]

Elaine Harmon (Photo: The Harmon Family) [/caption]

Our grandmother, Elaine Danforth Harmon, was born December 26th, 1919 in Baltimore, Maryland to a pro baseball player turned dentist and a homemaker.

Elaine attended the University of Maryland, majoring in Bacteriology. While in college, she saw a flyer for the Civil Aeronautics Authority Program. Excited at the thought of learning to fly, she sent the parent permission slip to her father’s office, because she knew her mother would find the idea “unladylike”. Her father promptly returned the signed permission slip, along with the $40 fee required for the course. After college, Elaine married her college sweetheart, Robert. Both of them greatly wanted to contribute to the war effort. Robert was unable to join the military due to a heart defect, so he obtained a civilian position in the South Pacific repairing military aircraft. Before he left, he and Elaine happened to see an article about the WASP in Life magazine. Robert encouraged Elaine to follow her dreams and join the WASP program.

Elaine was accepted into WASP class 44-9 and reported to Sweetwater, Texas for training. Upon completion of her training, she was stationed at Nellis Air Base near Las Vegas. During her career, she flew the AT-6 Texan, PT-17 trainer and BT-13 trainer, and was a co-pilot on the B-17 Flying Fortress.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="313.0"]

(Photo: The Harmon Family) [/caption]

After the WASP were disbanded, Elaine worked as an Air Traffic Controller at the Oakland Airport, awaiting her husband’s return from the South Pacific. She was standing in front of the St. Francis Hotel in Union Square in San Francisco on V-J Day.

Once reunited, Elaine and Robert returned to Maryland and raised a family together; two sons and two daughters.

Growing up with Elaine, or Gammy as we grandkids called her (there were 12 of us in all!), as the matriarch of our family always ensured that life would be interesting and fun.

Gammy would dress up as the Easter bunny for Easter, Uncle Sam for the 4th of July and her favorite---a witch for Halloween.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="268.0"]

Elaine Harmon in her favorite role: Gammy! (Photo: The Harmon Family) [/caption]

Whether she was sewing a dress for one of us, correcting our grammar, creating a mini-Fifinella (the WASP mascot) out of crepe paper, or recounting one of her many travel adventures she did it with gusto. Indeed she signed all of her correspondence with her favorite motto - Carpe Diem, or Seize the Day.

Gammy's experience with the WASP colored the rest of her life. As her grandkids, we watched her prep to testify for Congress on behalf of the WASP, we attended WWII events with her where she appeared in uniform, we celebrated when she went up in a T-6 fighter plane at 86 years old, and we saw the fan mail she received from students who had learned about her in school and wanted an autograph. To us it seemed normal to have a grandmother who flew planes in WWII so it was sometimes unbelievable to us when we met people who had never heard of the WASP.

Gammy took her final flight April 21, 2015. It was her last wish to be inurned in Arlington National Cemetery with other WASP and fellow veterans. Unfortunately, our family was devastated to discover shortly after Gammy’s passing that the Army had enacted a policy to exclude the WASP from Arlington.

Our grandmother had fought for decades to secure recognition and benefits for the WASP. Yet, here we were, 70 years after WWII and our family was being told that our grandmother was not a “real” veteran; that her service wasn’t sufficient to earn her a spot in Arlington. It was the ultimate insult. Our mother’s first thought was that she was glad that she didn’t have to tell Gammy what happened, but at the same time she was sad that she would have to break this news to the WASP who were still with us.

Thankfully, Gammy’s resilience and tenacity runs deep in our family. We knew that Gammy would not take no for an answer and so it was up to us to fight this last fight for her. We posted a petition at Change.org and began a social media campaign to raise awareness about this injustice.

After only a few months, the press caught onto the story and the issue came to the attention of Congresswoman Martha McSally of Arizona, who was one of the first American woman fighter pilots to fly in combat. Throughout her career as a pilot, Rep McSally had several WASP who served as mentors. She knew she had to make this right for our grandmother and all the WASP. She quickly authored HR 4336, the Women Airforce Service Pilot Arlington Inurnment Restoration (A.I.R.) Act.

A team effort ensued, including Representative McSally pushing hard to get her legislation expeditiously worked through the halls of Congress, Elaine's granddaughter Erin lobbying over a hundred legislators as well as other grandkids promoting the petition and reaching out to the press. As a result, in just a few short months, the WASP A.I.R. Act was approved by Congress and sent on to the Oval Office for final signature by President Obama.

The journey to ensure Gammy’s last wish to be inurned at Arlington was granted has been transformative. We have met many amazing and inspiring individuals and organizations along the way, such as the FlyGirls team!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400.0"]

Elaine Harmon lived life to the fullest! (Photo: The Harmon Family) [/caption]

Although losing Gammy was incredibly painful, it has been an honor to help preserve the WASP legacy in our own small way by ensuring that the WASP have the option to have their ashes inurned at Arlington National Cemetery. We will always remember our grandmother and how she lived every day to the fullest!

Carpe Diem!

Elaine Danforth Harmon was laid to rest September 7, 2016 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Inspired By the WASP: Avery Daugherty & Jessee Ford's Documentary Earns Them a Place in the National History Day Competition!

by Jess Clackum

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400.0"]

Avery Daugherty & Jessee Ford, friends and collaborators. (Photo credit: Kameron Daugherty) [/caption]

Avery Daugherty and Jessee Ford, students at Baseline Middle School in South Haven, Michigan were recently chosen to compete at the National History Day Competition to be held June 12-16, 2016 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The event brings together thousands of middle and high school students, parents and teachers from all over the world.

Avery and Jessee are no strangers to filmmaking. In 2015 they placed 2nd in the Regionals with a documentary Nikola Tesla - The Man Who Held Lightning.

This time around, inspired by stories of strong women, Avery and Jessee knew once they discovered the WASP, that was the story they wanted to tell. The result of their hard work and effort is a documentary titled Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A WASP, in which they have demonstrated exceptional research, interview and storytelling skills.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="791.0"]

Avery & Jessee during the judging for the first round at the Regionals, Western Michigan University (Photo credit: Kameron Daugherty) [/caption]

Their documentary is perfectly timed, on the heels of the House and Senate passing their respective bills restoring inurnment rights for the WASP, which President Obama is expected to sign into legislation any day now.

As they moved through the stages of competition and edited and honed their documentary, Avery and Jessee learned of the movement spearheaded by Arizona Congresswoman and veteran combat pilot Martha McSally and Erin Miller, granddaughterof WASP Elaine Harmon, to restore the WASP inurnment rights at Arlington National Cemetery. It further emboldened them to tell this story and their passion for it is evident. Avery and Jessee believe the WASP story is an important story to tell.

Avery says, "We want people, particularly young girls to know they can do anything. The sky's the limit, literally. You don't have to be held back by gender barriers."

Given their passion for filmmaking and history, it appears that the sky is the limit for Avery and Jessee. The legacy of the WASP will endure thanks to their contribution to telling the WASP story to the next generation...and beyond. We celebrate their passion and ambition and look forward to following them on this and many other journeys in the future.

The entire team at FlyGirls wishes Avery and Jessee the best as they prepare for Nationals!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400.0"]

Avery & Jessee. We see a very bright future for these two! (Photo credit: Avery Daugherty) [/caption]

//funds.gofundme.com/Widgetflex.swf

Attending the many competitions at the local, regional, state and national levels is costly. If you would like to support Avery, Jessee, their families and teachers defray travel-related expenses as they head to College Park for National History Day, please click on their Go Fund Me site!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Grace "Betty" Lotowycz lived life to the fullest.

by Jess Clackum

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="284.0"]

(Betty Lotowycz, 1944. Photo credit: Legacy.com) [/caption]

Grace "Betty" Ashwell Lotowycz was born May 11, 1916 in New York City and raised in New Canaan, Connecticut. As a child, she was challenged by a illnesses which twice had her bedridden forcing her to learn to walk again.

Upon graduation from high school she enrolled in Vassar College and majored in Botany. While there, she participated in rock climbing and mountaineering activities and after graduation in 1938, she climbed the Swiss Alps. She later worked in the editorial office of Life magazine and as curatorial assistant at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Having had a desire to fly since she was a child, inspired by her great-uncle who flew in France during WWI, and having read news articles about opportunities for women pilots, Betty decided to serve her country. She traveled to Pennsylvania on weekends to earn her pilot's license and joined the WASP in 1944 as a member of class 44-W-7. After graduation , she was stationed at Minter Field in Bakersfield, California where she served as a test pilot and ferried planes and cargo to air bases across the country.

After the WASP were disbanded in December 1944, she sought employment as a pilot but was told the public was not ready for women pilots. Instead she was offered a job as a flight attendant.

After the war, Betty married her husband Bill, a seaplane pilot. After living in Syria for two years, they moved back to the U.S. and settled on Long Island where they raised a family.

In the early 1960s Betty returned to a career in Botany. She established the Planting Fields Arboretum and served as its curator for 22 years, retiring in 1984.

An expert in Long Island flora, Betty often consulted with several conservation organizations well into her 80s and co-authored The Illustrated Field Guide to Shrubs and Woody Vines of Long Island. She also established the Long Island Botanical Society.

Though retired, Betty never really stopped working. She kept busy teaching classes, leading field trips and doing inventory for the botanical information bureau for the Arboretum.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="654.0"]

Betty Lotowycz. (Photo credit: Daily Camera / File photo) [/caption]

Betty passed away on April 8, 2016, just a month shy of her 100th birthday. We celebrate her life and her life and her service to our country.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m2TTOWO_s8&w=560&h=315]

Friday, April 15, 2016

"When you want the job done ready and right, give it to a woman." --"Lucky" Lindy Segall

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="808.0"]

"Lucky" Lindy Segall & his mother Muriel "Mimi" Lindstrom Segall, WASP 44-W-2 [/caption]

"I am my mother's son. And darn proud of it. She could out fly, shoot, ride, golf and fish most men I knew growing up--including my dad. It was no wonder to anyone that she had served with the WASP.

I knew very little of the story until she passed away in 1999--she was that modest. In Mimi's words, "we had a job to do, and we did it well." We've heard the stories of so many who served this great nation during WWII. Now, it's time to know the full saga of these amazing women, patriot pilots who proved once and for all time... "when you want the job done ready and right, give it to a woman."

Thursday, April 14, 2016

WASP Micky Axton lived her dream.

by Jess Clackum

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375.0"]

Micky Axton, WASP 43-W-7 [/caption]

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Micky Axton was born Mildred Darlene Tuttle in 1919 in Coffeyville, Kansas. She developed an interest in flying at the age of five when she first saw a plane. When she was eleven, a neighbor took her for her first plane ride in a World War I vintage Curtiss Jenny biplane.

"...I had my first ride with the Inman brothers in a Curtis Jenny when I was 11, and all I did is open the cockpit, drop cross there, there was no parachute, and I loved it. And he said, "Do you want to loop?" And I said, "Of course." So they looped and rolled and did everything and we -- our brother, we just loved it. So every time they were in town, they took us up first, showed the people the kids weren't afraid."

After graduation from high school in 1936, Axton enrolled in college and studied math and chemistry, earning a teaching certificate from Kansas State University. Soon after graduation, she obtained her pilot's license and attended the Civilian Pilot Training program at Coffeyville, the only woman in the class. While she learned to fly, she taught classes in math, chemistry, aviation ground school at Coffeyville Community College and served as coach of the college debate team.

She joined the WASP in 1943, motivated by the letters she received from her brother when he served as a fighter pilot in Guadalcanal in 1943.

“He wrote about how badly outnumbered they were, about how many in his squadron had been killed, I knew I had to do something.”

Axton's husband Wayne, whom she'd known most of her life, had been very supportive of her desire to join the WASP. He worked with Beech aircraft and though he wanted to be a pilot, he was later drafted into the infantry. Her parents, who agreed to care for her child, understood and appreciated her desire to serve her country. It was difficult for her to leave her husband and baby behind.

"It was awfully hard...to leave my husband that I dearly love. We had known each other from the third grade and we have been in love since we were seniors in high school, but mother and daddy said -- of course they knew how terrible things were for my brother and how they were all getting killed..."

Axton departed for training in Sweetwater which she once called "a godforsaken place". She was thankful that she was receiving free training to do something she loved. The training the women endured was thought to be tougher than that which their male counterparts received.

"We had to pass the Air Force physical, so they knew that they had good people to train and our training was going to be just the same, and I think it was even tougher, because those Air Force pilots did all the -- civilian pilots, men that the Air Force didn't want, they were older, they trained to teach us, and some women pilots were trained to teach us -- they were civilians -- but all our check rides were done by Air Force, and out of six in my bay, four washed out, and I had flown with all of them and I think they were just so doggone scared."

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500.0"]

Nonnie Anderson and Micky Axton show off their baggy uniforms. [/caption]

After she completed training, Axton was stationed at Pecos Army Air Base in Texas as an engineering test pilot flying the BT-13, AT-6 and UC-78. Her job was to fly damaged aircraft which had been repaired to determine if they were flight worthy. She told the Minneapolis Post in 2008, “Let me tell you, the men were happy to see us. They treated us like royalty. They didn’t want to have to be the testers.”

Testing planes at the airfield in Texas was extremely dangerous in part because of the strong crosswinds. There was also the issue of the damaged planes and whether or not they were actually safe for anyone to fly.

"...they checked everything really and they damaged the planes quite a bit. I mean, flying crosswind, there were lots of ground loops, and in a ground loop they would tear up the prop and the wing and ruin the engine or they would run into another plane that was landing next to it or sometimes they would forget to put the gear down or they would just have a bad landing, they weren't just little minor things that they tore up, but they could still replace them because they needed the planes. So on this flight, after I had been about 300 feet in the air, I heard the engine sputter and I knew it was going out, the way it was acting up, and all I had time to do is I just did a quick prayer and I radioed the tower and told them that I was losing an engine, the right engine, and we all know that if you are in a twin engine plane and one engine quits, that plane is going to go immediately into a spin, that's just the law of physics, so I know my prayer was answered because if you have altitude, you have a thing that you can wind and trim the plane so you can fly it and bring it back, but at 300 feet I didn't have any time to do that, all I had time -- and I said, "I can't get clear around because I am losing altitude. I have got to come in crosswind and clear the field," so they were yelling, "Clear the field. Plane's coming in," and I could hear the ambulances and the fire trucks and everything, and I held that plane up and it came in. I came in crosswind and landed it and I didn't hurt a thing, and I know my prayer was answered because the laws of physics and everybody, the pilots I talked to said, "You were right, angels saved you."

Axton resigned from the WASP in April 1944 when her mother became ill. She returned home and obtained employment as a flight test crew member for Boeing Airplane Company where she analyzed flight data from B-29s to improve their performance. In May 1944, she made the historic flight as the first woman to pilot a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, a four-engine prop-powered bomber, one of the largest aircraft of its time.

"...I have the papers to prove I was the first woman to ever fly it, but I didn't fly it the same way they did, but I still was the first woman to fly a B-29, but I don't make a big deal about it because we are the ones that he brought in to show them how to do it properly because they were afraid of it, so many deaths, and it was catching fire and stuff, they just weren't paying attention to do it correctly. He [Chief Flight Engineer] just shamed them into it. I will also tell you that the same thing happened with the really fast B-39 and the B-26, it had real unusual characteristics. Now, you know how to fly but every different kind of plane has different characteristics."

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500.0"]

The B-29 Flying Superfortress [/caption]

After the war, Axton taught high school aeronautics, biology and chemistry in Wichita, Kansas and she also coached the debate team. She raised her family and spent much time in her later years active in aviation organizations and speaking at air shows and events, educating the public on the history of the WASP and inspiring all through their stories. In 1990 Axton became the first woman guest speaker at a US Navy and Marine pilot graduation and the following year, she found herself in the cockpit of the B-29 once again, flying the restored B-29 known as “Fifi” to the Commemorative Air Force in Wichita.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="395.0"]

Micky Axton flying the restored B-29 "Fifi" from Garden City, Kansas to Wichita. (Photo credit: Boeing) [/caption]

A Colonel in the Commemorative Air Force and active member for four decades, she was honored when the Jayhawk Wing in Wichita nicknamed their newly restored PT-23 “Miss Micky”.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="264.0"] (Photo credit: Commemorative Air Force )

(Photo credit: Commemorative Air Force ) [/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="329.0"] Photo Credit: Commemorative Air Force )

Photo Credit: Commemorative Air Force ) [/caption]

Micky Axton passed away at the age of 91 in 2010. She was a trailblazer who had a dream and never let anything stand in her way of making it a reality. Her advice to young people was this: “If you have a dream, especially if you want to fly, there are a lot of older people that will point you in the right direction.”

We are grateful to Micky for her service to our country and for her fierce determination and courage. Her legacy lives on!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxXynjJYjJk&w=560&h=315]

(Many thanks to the Minnesota Historical Societies Greatest Generation Film Project for this 10 minute film featuring Micky Axton)

(Credits to The Veterans History Project, Commemorative Air Force, Eden Prairie News)

Friday, April 8, 2016

The Men Behind The Women: Senator Barry Goldwater & Colonel Bruce Arnold

by Jess Clackum

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1500.0"]

(Photo credit: Wings Across America) [/caption]

In 1972, thirty years after the WASP program began, the WASP still had not received veteran status or military benefits for their service. Equal Rights Advocate and Title IX Author, Rep. Patsy Mink, of Hawaii, sponsored a bill for the militarization of the WASP, but the House Veterans Affairs Committee refused to consider it. WASP members organized the WASP Military Committee and named retired USAF Colonel Bruce Arnold, a longtime WASP advocate, and son of the late General "Hap" Arnold, Chair of their committee.

Joining forces with Col. Arnold, was another ardent WASP supporter, Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater, who had flown with WASP aviators in WWII, launched an investigation into the veteran status and military benefits for the WASP. When Goldwater's legislation to recognize the WASP was rejected, he was undeterred, threatening to attach a WASP amendment to every piece of legislation that he introduced in the upper chamber if Senate opponents continued to block the WASP bill.

The American Legion and Veterans Administration argued that if the WASP were granted veteran benefits, then other civilian organizations that had supported the war effort -- the Civil Air Patrol for example -- would also begin to lobby for military recognition.

Col. Arnold and many of the WASP testified before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, as to the military training, top secret missions, drills, uniforms, sidearms and all of the things that made the WASP a military organization.

Col. Arnold concluded his remarks with an impassioned plea:

"...Who is more deserving, a young girl, flying on written official military orders who is shot down and killed by our own anti-aircraft artillery while carrying out those orders, or a young finance clerk with an eight to five job in a Denver office?... We hope that this committee will remember that the WASP too have borne the battle, a battle that left 79 of them killed or injured. Not to care for them also makes a mockery of the motto of the Veterans Administration as well as the whole Veterans Administration system in our country."

It was a five year battle, but in the fall of 1977, President Jimmy Carter, initially opposed to the legislation, signed the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977, granting the WASP full military status for their service.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Alton "Boots" McCormick, Aviator & Staunch Supporter of the WASP!

by Jess Clackum

"The story of the WASPs belongs with that of the Tuskegee Airmen as a group of individuals overcoming incredible obstacles to serve their nation in a time of need. It is important to remember the WASPs because they turned women flying from a novelty to an everyday necessity. It took a decade or so for the military to figure it out but they were the trailblazers. They did it out of patriotism and love of flying, not to be role models or heroes, although that is how they ended up!"

---Alton "Boots" McCormick

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300.0"]

Boots McCormick. (Photo credit: Air Group One) [/caption]

"Boots" McCormick is Operations Officer at Air Group One in San Diego. He is an experienced commercial and military pilot and flight instructor with more than 20 years experience flying fighter jets, tankers, surveillance aircraft, helicopters and vintage military aircraft.

Recently, Boots stepped in to make a WASP wish come true. When WASP Beverly Beesemyer (44-W-6) made it known she wanted to fly in an AT-6 one more time, Boots made that happen. He dropped what he was doing and made a point to be present at the FlyGirls "The Greatest Generation Meets The Next Generation: Women in Flight" event on March 20th in Carlsbad, California, where he fulfilled Beverly's wish.

We thank Boots for being such a passionate supporter of the WASP legacy and FlyGirls!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="3264.0"]

Boots & Beverly indulge in a selfie! (Photo credit: Alton McCormick) [/caption]

Air Group One is the San Diego Wing of the "Commemorative Air Force". Their mission is "education, such that generations of Americans will value and support the contributions of military aviation in assuring our nation's freedom."

Read more about AG1 at http://ag1caf.org/

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Finding Her Wings: Jocelyn Moore Evernham, 2nd Lieutenant, WASP 43-W-8

by Lorraine Evernham Frigolet

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Jocelyn Evernham (Photo: Lorraine Evernham Frigolet) [/caption]

Jocelyn Moore Evernham (1912-2003) earned her WASP wings in December 1943, class of 43-W-8 after completing 6 months of training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.

Prior to joining the WASP, Jocelyn was employed by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft in Fort Worth, Texas. She started learning to fly there by joining the local flying club. Her initial flight training was in the Club’s Porterfield in which she completed 35 hours and earned her private pilot certificate.

One day in the Fort Worth newspaper, Jocelyn read an announcement about recruitment for the WASP. The recruiting office was right there in Fort Worth so she immediately went down to sign up. A few months later she received a call to start her WASP training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. During her training she flew the PT-19, BT-13/15 (affectionately known as the “Vultee Vibrator”), the AT-6 Texan and the twin engine Beech UC-78. After graduating in the class of 43-W-8, she was assigned to Gardner Field in Taft, California. From there she ferried planes all over the country, taxied non-flying officers between bases, conducted test flights and weather checks. In May 1944, she went to Orlando, Florida to attend officer’s training at the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics and became a 2nd Lieutenant.

In August 1944, Jocelyn was reassigned to Yuma Army Air Force Base to report for training in the B-26 C. She towed targets with the B26 for the gunnery school until the WASP disbanded on December 20, 1944. She then returned to her family home in California, married in 1948 and had two children. She dedicated herself to raising her family, another dream of hers. She flew occasionally with friends over the years and then in her eighties took many flights with her daughter when she learned to fly. She had the opportunity to fly several times in the AT-6 again, always her “dream ship.” Jocelyn took her final flight in July 2003.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500.0"]

Jocelyn Moore Evernham with her AT-6. (Photo credit: Lorraine Evernham Frigolet) [/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500.0"]

Jocelyn, second from left, with her fellow classmates in front of the B-26. Jocelyn was sent to Yuma, Arizona to fly the B-26 and tow targets in August 1944 where she stayed until the WASP were disbanded. (Photo credit: Lorraine Evernham Frigolet) [/caption]

It is always fascinating to read about the experiences of the WASP in their own words and so it goes without saying that we are grateful to Lorraine Evernham Frigolet for sharing an excerpt from the book she co-authored with her mother, titled Finding My Wings...

Saturday July 3, 1943 Ft. Worth, Texas

Here it is only 24 hours before I get the train for Sweetwater! I am so excited. I have my big bag all packed and everything ready. This past week has been a social one. All my Texas friends have been giving me send-offs.

I have had a grand time getting all “my affairs” in order. Much washing, throwing away and all that. You know how it is!

The next day I boarded the train to Sweetwater, with my hopes high and at the same time my mind racing with questions. What will it be like? Will I make it through the training course? What planes will I learn to fly? I joined to fly and I was glad to know I would be helping the cause!

I was familiar with the wide, open, dry spaces of Texas after living in Fort Worth for almost a year but Sweetwater was really out there in the wild, Wild West!! The train pulled in to town in the late afternoon and I grabbed a taxi to the Blue Bonnet Hotel where I had been instructed to stay for the night. The Blue Bonnet was the gathering spot for all the incoming class and the place was swarming with “WASP to be”. We were to be picked up in the morning at 8:00 sharp to go out to the Avenger Field in the infamous “ cattle wagon".

I was exhausted but could hardly sleep and stayed up talking with my soon- to- be classmates of the Class of 43 W-8. They came from all over the country from all different backgrounds with wide ranges in flying experience. I felt somewhat green with only 40 hours of flight time in my little Porterfield and work with the Civil Air Patrol. I found out that many of the girls were like me and others came with many years and hours of flight time.

The next morning we all piled into the cattle wagon (it was really just a long Army trailer) and rode out to Avenger Field about 3 miles outside of town. As we approached the field, the sky became busy with airplanes everywhere! We pulled through the gates and I saw Fifinella (the guardian angel of the WASP created by Walt Disney) perched on top of the Administration building and I knew this was no longer a dream. I was really here about to embark on the most thrilling adventure of my life!

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Finding My Wings is scheduled for publication late 2016/early 2017. Email Lorraine@compassroseinc.net for more information and to be added to the book interest list.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Isabelle Garrett McCrae, WASP 44-W-3, Nurse & Aviator

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Isabelle Garrett McCrae, WASP 44-W-3. (Photo credit: Virginia Thomas Collection, International Women's Air & Space Museum) [/caption]

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Isabelle Garrett McCrae was born in 1912 in Rocky Ford, Colorado. She grew up on a farm in Nebraska and as a child, was fascinated by flying. It was after she'd flown as a passenger in a plane piloted by a childhood friend that she realized her dream.

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Isabelle flew her own Piper Comanche 260 until the age 87 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She passed away in 1999.

Here is an excerpt of her experiences, in her own words. We thank her son Mike McCrae for sharing this with us...

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Isabelle with husband Roderick Scott McCrae, USN enlisted PBY pilot, and her parents Mr. and Mrs. Bird Garrett. [/caption]

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Upon “disbandment”of the WASP, Isabelle returned to nursing, but flew many Powder Puff Derbies in a model 35 Beech Bonanza, which now resides in the Beech Museum in Tullahoma and is the oldest flying Bonanza on record. Here she is with her friend Betty McNeill preparing for a competition. Her son Mike recalls sneaking onto the wing to get into the picture! (Photo credit: Mike McCrae) [/caption]

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In 1941, Isabelle belonged to an aero competition group called the “Aeroettes”. (Photo credit: Mike McCrae) [/caption]

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Newspaper article, San Diego, circa 1952 [/caption]

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Friday, April 15, 2016

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Friday, April 8, 2016

Friday, April 1, 2016

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Thursday, March 24, 2016

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