Wall of Honor - The 38 Fallen WASP

We honor the fallen...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="219.0"]                Hazel Ying Lee       Aug 24, 1912 - Nov 25, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]          Mabel Virginia Rawlinson         Mar 19, 1917 - Aug 23, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="204.0"]      Virginia Caraline Moffatt      May 22, 1912 - Oct 5, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225.0"]         Marie Michell Robinson        May 23, 1924 - Oct 2, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225.0"]          Gertrude Tompkins Silver          Oct 16, 1912 - Oct 26, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225.0"]                 Mary P. Hartson          Jan 11, 1917 - Aug 14, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="175.0"]   Betty Louise Taylor Wood   Mar 13, 1921 - Sep 23, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225.0"]               Elizabeth Mae Scott             Jul 26, 1921 - Jul 8, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225.0"]               Dorothy F. Scott         Feb 16, 1920 - Dec 3, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="178.0"]          Lea Ola McDonald    Oct 12, 1921 - Jun 21, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225.0"]           Jane Delores Champlin         May 14, 1917 - Jun 7, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="192.0"]          Beverly Jean Moses     Dec 21, 1922 - Jul 18, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="219.0"]        Jeanne Lewellen Norbeck        Nov 14, 1912 - Oct 16, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="204.0"]         Susan Parker Clarke      Aug 5, 1918 - Jul 4, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="205.0"]      Bonnie Jean Alloway Welz      Jun 22, 1918 - Jun 29, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="215.0"]   Evelyn Genevieve Sharp (WAFS)         Oct 1, 1919 - Apr 3, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="175.0"]        Betty Pauline Stine   Sep 13, 1921 - Feb 25, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="215.0"]       Mary Ann "Marian" Toevs        May 13, 1917 - Feb 18, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="175.0"]     Marjorie Laverne Davis    Dec 20, 1922 - Oct 16,1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="215.0"]        Marie Ethel Cihler Sharon        Apr 21, 1917 - Apr 10, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="223.0"]      Helen Jo Anderson Severson        Nov 2, 1918 - Aug 30, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]      Margaret June "Peggy" Seip       Jun 24, 1916 - Aug 30, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="158.0"]       Gleanna Roberts Jan 11, 1919 - Jun 20, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]        Margaret Sanford Oldenburg           Jul 29, 1909- M ar 7, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="198.0"]    Dorothy Mae "Dottie" Nichols       Sep 26, 1916 - Jun 11, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="255.0"]               Mary Elizabeth Trebing             Dec 31, 1920 - Nov 7, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200.0"]      Marjorie Doris Edwards     Sep 28, 1918-Jun 13, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]              Peggy Wilson Martin            Feb 8, 1912 - Oct 3, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]                  Alice E. Lovejoy           Aug 15, 1915 - Sep 13, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="171.0"]      Katherine Dussaq Mar 14, 1905 - Nov 26, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="175.0"] Elizabeth "Jayne" Erickson Apr 24, 1921 - Apr 16, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]             Cornelia Fort (WAFS)         Feb 5, 1919 - Mar 21, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="215.0"]             Paula Ruth Loop       Aug 25, 1916 - Jul 7, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="175.0"]    Frances Fortune Grimes   Oct 7, 1914-Mar 27, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="215.0"]          Mary Holmes Howson       F eb 10, 1919-Apr 16, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="235.0"]         Edith "Edy" Clayton Keene          Dec 19, 1920-Apr 25, 1944 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="215.0"]   Kathryn Barbara "Kay" Lawrence         Dec 3, 1920-Aug 4, 1943 [/caption]




[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="195.0"]        Mary Louise Webster     Jun 30, 1919-Dec 9, 1944 [/caption]

After 61 Years, WASP Marie Michell Robinson Comes Home

"The Mojave was cold and gray on a recent visit to the crash site of North American Aviation B-25D #41-30114 USAAF that crashed killing all three aircrew on 10/2/44. The pilot was 1st Lt George D. Rosado, copilot WASP Marie Michell Robinson, and crew chief S/Sgt Gordon L. Walker.

Their mission was listed as "day transition" training for copilot Michell-Robinson. Two eyewitnesses flying nearby in Bell P-39's stated that they saw the B-25D stall and then enter a spin from which there was no recovery. #41-30114 was observed to crash and burn some twenty-five miles west of Victorville AAB. Crash trucks were able to drive to the accident site.

There were no survivors.

The wreckage was mostly removed following the completion of the coroner’s grim work. In sixty-one years few people have visited the crash site. I had looked for it with Chris Killian and others on a number of occasions without success. Thanks to Mike Lyons I was finally able to find what remained of #41-30114. Joining me was my son Pat J. Macha, and a friend.

We were not surprised to find that only about 2% of the B-25D remained, but we were very surprised to find the WASP lapel insignia of Marie Michell Robinson lying in the surface sand undisturbed for more than half a century. The examination of the site yielded a gold ring, coins and part of a bracelet.

I had been urged to visit this site because holes had been dug there and concern was expressed that the remaining wreckage was going to be removed. The holes we observed did not seem recent, and hopefully the site will continue to remain unnoticed. Should efforts fail to return all personal effects to next of kin the artifacts will be displayed at Texas Women's University at Denton, Texas.

Marie Michell Robinson was only twenty at the time of her death. With our Nation's flag temporarily placed at the center of the crash site, we paused to honor the crew of B-25D #41-30114. We then departed just ahead of the heavy rains to come.

All artifacts recovered were consistent with seating arrangements of the crew on that fateful day in October 1944. Veterans Affairs are assisting in the return of personal effects associated with 1st Lt Rosado, and S/Sgt Walker."

Courtesy of: Aircraft Wrecks in the Mountains and Deserts of the American West. From L.A. Times article 2005.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV3QrjNJpZ0&w=560&h=315]

Cornelia Fort - WASP

Cornelia Fort was born to a wealthy and prominent family in Nashville on February 5, 1919. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1939. Fort showed an interest in flying at an early age and earned her pilot's license in Hawaii, became an instructor, and eventually a member of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).

Fort was one of the first witnesses to the attack on Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7th, she was instructing a student pilot in the sky over Pearl Harbor when she saw a military aircraft approach her at high speed. She immediately pulled up and noticed the rising sun on the side of the plane. Moments later she witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor. She landed the plane and she and her student ran for cover.

On March 21, 1943, the WAFS joined in maneuvers with a group of male pilots in the sky over Merkel, Texas. Both groups were given explicit instructions to fly in formation and maintain a distance of five hundred feet between planes. But one pilot decided to play games with his female counterparts. Breaking formation, he accelerated and headed toward the group. He rolled his plane around Fort's BT-13 and misjudging the distance, the wing of his plane sliced through the cockpit, fatally injuring her. Before the plane crashed into the ground, she managed to turn off the ignition to avoid being consumed by flames.

Cornelia Fort was the first female pilot to die while serving on Active Duty.

Hazel Ying Lee - WASP

From the Director: Meet Hazel Ying Lee, first Chinese-American woman to fly for the U.S. military. Known for her skill and courage, her peers considered her to be an excellent pilot.

Born in Portland, Oregon on August 24, 1912, Lee was drawn to flying when she was a teenager. She took a job as an elevator operator in downtown Portland, saved money for private flying lessons and was flying by the time she was nineteen.

In 1944, Lee attended Pursuit School in Brownsville, Texas, becoming one of a select group of women qualified to fly high-powered, single-engine, fighter aircraft, including the P-51 Mustang.

Hazel Ying Lee died on November 25, 1944, as a result of injuries sustained in a collision on a runway with a malfunctioning plane whose radio had failed. Both planes had accidentally been directed to land on the same runway at the same time. Hazel Lee was one of the last of the 38 WASP’s killed during the war.

Margaret Oldenburg - WASP

March 8, 1943: The Houston paper barely mentions the accident. It has little to say about the death of the first woman pilot to die in the service of her country.

Both Margaret Oldenburg and her civilian instructor, Norris Morgan were killed when their PT-19A crashed approximately six miles south of the Houston Texas Army Air Field.

When Oldenburg's classmates learn which plane crashed, members of 43-3 are horrified and furious. They know the plane was out of rig and its Form 1-A noted the plane was restricted.

The instructors wonder privately if anyone told Morgan - new to military flying - about being sure to check the Form 1-A, and not to take for granted the Flight Board assigning him the plane.

The flight instructor was covered by $10,000 insurance policy. Oldenburg had no insurance coverage. Provisions were made for the instructor's burial expenses.

All Margaret would get would be a pine box and $200, with no provision, no escort, to her body back to California.