DORIS TANNER AMONG WASP VETS TO BE RECOGNIZED

By: John Brannon Messenger Staff Reporter
Posted: Thursday, November 5, 2009 8:58 pm

Were Tennessee to choose a poster couple for Veterans Day or for marriage and military service, Bill and Doris Tanner of Union City would, no doubt, be top contenders. These two senior citizens — he’s 90, she’s 89 — seem ageless as they sit and reminisce about the great war of yesteryear that touched their lives when they were in their early 20s. The specter of Pearl Harbor haunted all. He went to war and didn’t come back for almost three years. And he came back a war hero, although he didn’t trumpet it. And what of her during the war years? She served the nation on two fronts — public education and aviation. She served two years in a quasi-military unit — all females, all aviators. And now, almost 70 years later, a grateful nation is about to formally recognize her wartime service and that of a band of sisters whose organization was known as “WASP” or “Women’s Airforce Service Pilots.” Brief history In their time, Bill and Doris Tanner have seen a lot of life come and go. There was the experience of the war years, of course, and after the war, the year-by-year struggle to build their lives around family, farm and community. No feature story could tell the Tanners’ story in its entirety.

As a synopsis, we offer these glimpses of their personal histories.

• Each is a native-born West Tennessean. William W. “Bill” Tanner was born Jan. 9, 1919, in Union City. Doris Brinker (Russell) Tanner was born Dec. 6, 1919, in Brownsville.

• Each was a member of the Class of 1941 at the University of Tennessee, she with an undergraduate degree in English and history, he with an undergraduate degree in agriculture.

• They had become sweethearts well before graduation.

• After graduation, they went their separate ways, she to a teaching position at Haywood County Elementary School, he to Fort Bragg, N.C., where he was assigned to a unit of the 9th Infantry Division. At UT, he completed the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry branch of the U.S. Army.

• After the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, he got approved for a three-day pass and went to Tennessee to see his girl. “Pearl Harbor scared him. He knew he would be going overseas soon,” Doris said. “He wanted to get married before he went overseas because we might never see each other again.” He went back to Fort Bragg, still a single soldier. As a platoon leader with an infantry outfit, he had a duty and responsibility to the Army. But his heart was in Brownsville.

• In March 1942, he took another three-day pass. Straightaway, he went back to West Tennessee to the arms of his beloved. They were married on March 19, 1942, in Brownsville. Her grandfather, the late C.D. Russell Sr., did the honors. Their honeymoon was a one-way trip to Fort Bragg in an old car he bought from a Brownsville man. It broke down on the trip, but he was able to return to his unit before his pass expired. Doris looks back on those days and smiles. Her anecdotes about the trip across the Smoky Mountains are a large part of her precious memories. “Before we married, he said he was afraid we’d never see each other again. Well, we’ve been seeing each other for 67 years,” she quipped.

• Doris went back to teaching. For a while, that is. Bill went to war.

• Bill served with units of the 9th Infantry Division in such far-flung places as North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium and Germany. On D-Day Plus 4 — meaning four days after D-Day, June 6, 1944 — he and his unit went ashore Utah Beach during the Allies’ European invasion. From North Africa to Germany, he held a plethora of leadership positions — platoon leader, company commander, battalion executive officer and battalion commander, 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry Brigade, 9th Infantry Division. In his time he was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, several campaign medals and other awards and decorations. He was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant colonel in December 1945. As you might imagine, he headed home to West Tennessee to be reunited with his wife whom he hadn’t seen in almost three years.

• With Bill gone to war, Doris had her teaching job to occupy her days. Then a new US Army Air Force caught her attention. The year was 1942; the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) had been established by Congress. But an all-female unit, independent of WAC, was created. Doris was interested. She applied, was accepted and went to an Army Air Force Base in Sweetwater, Texas, for pilot training. In those days, there was no U.S. Air Force. America’s military aviation was part of the U.S. Army. Hence, the designation, U.S. Army Air Force. In 1949, by congressional fiat in the National Defense Act, the U.S. Air Force was created as an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces. “I was living with Bill at Southern Pines, N.C., when the call came to join WASP,” Doris said. “I won my wings in late 1943. I was in Class 44-4. We started with 95 and only 53 graduated. Our washout rate was high.” After training she was assigned to the Operations section at an air base in Douglas, Ariz. “We flew everything the Air Force had at the time,” she said. “One of our jobs was to ferry planes from factory to field, but we couldn’t fly them out of the country. Right at the last, they brought in the new B-25 to train us on twin-engine planes.” The B-25 “Mitchell,” named for Gen. Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation, was a twin-engine medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. About 10,000 of the B-25s were manufactured. They were used in every theater of operations during the war.

“I served with WASP two years and then came home,” Doris said. Not a veteran But unlike her husband, she did not return home a veteran, at least as far as the U.S. Army was concerned. Why? Because WASP was not a military unit. It was quasi-military, meaning maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. And that’s the way it stayed until 1977 when the female pilots were awarded veteran status. An official press release states that WASP was established during World War II to fly non-combat missions in order to free male military aviators for combat. More than 1,000 women joined the program. They ultimately flew 60 million miles of non-combat missions. Thirty-eight WASP women lost their lives in the line of duty. An estimated 300 WASP ladies are still alive today.

RECOGNITION

Recently, President Obama signed a bill into law that awards a Congressional Gold Medal to WASP. The bill passed the Senate on May 20 and the House on June 16. “Every American should be grateful for their service. I am honored to sign this bill to finally give them some of the hard-earned recognition they deserve,” the president said. She’ll be there Doris Tanner said the president’s signature on the legislation authorizes the special gold medal to be struck. She said tentative plans are that he will award the medals at a special ceremony in Washington next March. You can believe she’ll be right there to accept hers. Published in The Messenger 11.5.09

SEN. HUTCHISON & THE TEXAS AIR FORCE ASSO. TO HONOR THE TEXAS WASP

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Senator Hutchison and the Texas Air Force Association

to Honor the Texas WASP at Veterans Day Event in Dallas

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, along with the Texas Air Force Association, invite veterans groups and the public to join them this Veterans Day in honoring our state’s veterans and eighteen Texas Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) at a ceremony at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas.

At the event, Senator Hutchison will present each WASP with a gold paged copy of the Congressional Gold Medal legislation that she sponsored and the President signed into law in July.

The Senator and Colonel Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, of the 12th Flying Training Wing Commander at Randolph, Air Force Base in San Antonio, will deliver keynote speeches. The National Anthem and additional music will be provided by the Upper Girls Chorus from the Hockaday School, an internationally known all girls preparatory school in Dallas. The Color Guard services will be performed by the “WASP Deanie Parrish” Color Guard from the Texas Christian University Air Force ROTC Program from Fort Worth.

Lunch will be served afterwards for the WASP and their family members. Light refreshments will be available for the public.

Below is a list of the WASP scheduled to attend, along with their hometowns and additional event information.

Jerrie Phillips Badger	League City, TX		Ann Morgan Hazzard	Pharr, TX
Eloise Bailey	Carrollton, TX		Dorothy A. Smith Lucas	San Antonio, TX
Susie Winston Bain	Austin, TX		Muriel V. Kiester Martin	La Feria, TX
Frankie Bretherick	Plano, TX		Deanie Bishop Parrish	Waco, TX
Eleanor Mickey Brown	Victoria, TX		Betty Jo Streff Reed	N. Richland Hills, TX
Mildred Dalrymple	Austin, TX		Mary Putnam Vandeventer	Lueders, TX
Rosa Lea Fullwood Meek Dickerson	Kerrville, TX		Rita Murphy Wischmeyer	Dallas, TX
Madelyn Eggleston	Vernon, TX		Elizabeth Louis “Betty” Whiting	Austin, TX
Lois B. Hailey	Friendswood, TX		Jo Myers Wheelis	Weatherford, TX

WHO: U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and the Texas Air Force Association

WHAT: Texas Veterans Day WASP Celebration

WHERE: Frontiers of Flight Museum

6911 Lemmon Ave

Dallas, TX 75209

WHEN: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 11:00 AM CST

CONTACT: Roxi Dolphin (202) 224-1443 or (936) 525-9752 or roxi_dolphin@hutchison.senate.gov

-- END --

El Dorado Hills woman, 99, recalls years as pilot

Published: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1BBy Cynthia Hubert

chubert@sacbee.com

On bright, clear afternoons outside her apartment in El Dorado Hills, Doris Locknesssometimes squints up at the sky and wonders: Does she have one more flight left in her?

Probably not, she reluctantly concludes. After all, Lockness is nearing her 100th birthday, and she sold her last airplane a decade ago.

But "oh, what fun I had," Lockness recalls of her pioneering days as a pilot. "It's wonderful to fly."

The recent release of the film "Amelia," in whichHilary Swank portrays aviator Amelia Earhart,has stirred vivid memories in Lockness, who is one of the nation's most accomplished female fliers.

"Amelia was a hero to all of us," Lockness said, "especially to me."

Lockness began training two years after Earhart's plane disappeared in 1937 during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Sixty years later, at age 87, Lockness became the 100th pilot to fly into Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport inAtchison, Kansas.

"I was thrilled to represent Amelia," she said, flipping through newspaper clippings about the event. "It was such an honor."

The petite and feisty Lockness has racked up numerous honors for an aviation career that spanned six decades and 10,000 flying hours.

She trained with the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, was the 55th woman in the world to earn a commercial helicopter rating, and got licenses in flying seaplanes, gyroplanes, hot air balloons and gliders.

She has been recognized for her contributions to the public acceptance of women as pilots by Earhart's Ninety-Nines group and has awards from the Whirly Girls helicopter organization, theNational Aeronautic Association and the OX 5 Pioneers, among others.

So vast is her collection of medals, plaques, certificates, commemorative photographs and other memorabilia that she has trouble fitting it all into her small living space. Her name and pictures appear in several historical books, "but I guess I really should write a book of my own," Lockness said with a smile.

Her story began in Pennsylvania and moved to Ohio, where her parents farmed grain and potatoes. During the Great Depression she left the Midwest and traveled with her young husband to California. They were raising a family near a tiny airport in Wilmington when the flying bug bit.

"I would see the little planes take off and land, and think, 'I would like to do that,' " she said. "I had followed Amelia and the old-time fliers, and I thought it would be so great to be up there, so carefree."

After "getting my four kids off to school," Lockness said, she started training. "I was the only woman out there, of course. Cars would line up to watch this crazy woman fly planes."

Lockness obtained her license at age 29 and later joined the WASPs, becoming one of the first women to fly United States military aircraft. The WASPs, who flew domestic missions to free male pilots for overseas duty, disbanded in 1946.

Lockness had found her passion, but her husband did not approve and the couple divorced.

Lockness became a flight instructor and ultimately owned nine planes, including her beloved Vultee-Stinson warbird, the "Swamp Angel," which she piloted around the country.

In her second husband, Robert Lockness, she found a man who shared her love of flying and fast cars. "We would map out a route and just go," she said.

At 99 years old, Doris Lockness still drives a shiny white Jaguar to the market, and is an honorary member of the Sacramento Jaguar Club. She has never had a serious health problem, she said, and her knees are as strong as ever, "probably from pushing rudders for all those years."

Lockness still gets a little giddy when she hears the roar of an airplane or the thumping of a helicopter rotor. "I look up at the sky, and I can't believe I used to do all that," she said.

In February, Lockness will turn 100, and she knows exactly how she wants to celebrate.

"I want to go for a helicopter ride," she said. "I don't think they'll let me fly it, but I want to go up again."

VETS HONORED FOR SERVICE

Photo by Gerik Parmele

U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer presents Mary Nirmaier of Columbia, left, and Rose Ross of Moberly with framed copies of remarks he entered into the Congressional Record on behalf of their being honored with the Congressional Gold Medal. Both women were Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II.

By JANESE HEAVIN

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

ADVERTISEMENT

Mary Burch Nirmaier had a different reason for joining the Women Airforce Service Pilots than her friends had.

“My roommates joined because there were a lot of boys around, not because they were interested in flying,” she said. “I was interested in learning to fly. To heck with meeting boys.”

Her interest paid off. Nirmaier, of Columbia, and fellow WASP veteran Rose “Penny” Ross of Moberly were recognized yesterday by U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., for being among 300 surviving members of WASP. This summer President Barack Obama honored members with a Congressional Gold Medal.

Nirmaier was a secretary in Washington, D.C., when WASP was created in 1943, a consolidation of female pilots flying for the Army Air Forces. Her brothers were in the military, and she wanted to play her part. “I said, ‘I’ve just got to go,’” she recalled. “So I did.”

After joining an airplane club and accumulating the required hours of flying time, she went to the Army’s flying school in Sweetwater, Texas, and graduated in 1944.

Nirmaier and Ross were among a select few to do so. According to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, more than 25,000 women applied for pilot training, of which 1,830 were accepted and fewer than 1,200 graduated. The pilots flew noncombat missions, freeing up male pilots for combat service.

The women also challenged their male counterparts. The WASPs flew demonstration flights in the B-26 and B-29 bombers to prove to men that the new planes were easy to operate, according to the museum.

Nirmaier flew B-25s for two years during the war.

The son of a World War II veteran, Luetkemeyer praised the women for their service, saying they played a key role in war efforts.

“I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to be able to help the United States,” Ross said.

“I second that,” Nirmaier added.

Ross landed for good after leaving the WASPs, but Nirmaier continued to be interested in flying. A couple of years ago, her son bought her a flight aboard a small aircraft.

Getting inside the plane, Nirmaier said yesterday, “It all came back. It was all I could do to not take the control. But” the pilot “didn’t ask me to, so I didn’t.”

“Good girl,” Ross quipped.

Reach Janese Heavin at 573-815-1705 or e-mail jheavin@columbiatribune.com.

Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial

Editorial: Women pilots'; World War II effort was huge

article By Kalamazoo Gazette staff

reprinted with credit and appropriate links

September 25, 2009, 8:26AM

This was written by the Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board.

There are about 300 surviving female military pilots who served our country during World War II.

Unfortunately, the accomplishments of these brave and patriotic grandmothers and great-grandmothers of today — three of whom have Kalamazoo connections — are either unknown or have been largely forgotten by today’s generation.

Accordingly, the Kalamazoo Gazette was delighted to devote a large amount of space this past Sunday to tell its readers about these very special people.

They served in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) from August 1943 until December 1944. Theirs was a paramilitary organization. More than a thousand of them managed to get their wings.

Military men at first were cool to the notion of women aviators, even in non-combat roles. But that soon changed. Members of WASP flew about 60 million miles, mostly to ferry war materials and personnel (1) all over the world (2). Thirty-eight of them were killed, some during training.

The WASP service enabled the release of many male pilots for possible combat duty. The female pilots did not engage in combat, but did serve as test pilots and flew aircraft during training exercises.

Included in the Gazette’s package were compelling stories of three surviving WASP members who are living in Kalamazoo. They are Dorothy Eppstein, 91; Doris Nathan, 92; and Suzanne D. Parish, 86. They are among about 300 surviving pilots. Mabel Rawlinson, also of Kalamazoo, was killed on Aug. 23, 1943, when the aircraft flown by the Western Michigan University graduate crashed during a training exercise (3) at a military base in North Carolina. Rawlinson was 26.

Although WASP pilots performed essentially the same service as did many male pilots, it took a long time for them to be duly recognized. The group’s 1944 disbandment was, in fact, due in part over objections that women took non-combat jobs away from men. WASP records were sealed. The women returned to civilian life, and their service was largely forgotten.

It wasn’t until 1977 that Congress gave veterans status to WASP. Two years later, honorable discharges were approved.

At last, the women will receive the Congressional Gold Medal. The prestigious award, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is our country’s highest civilian honor. It has been presented only 140 times in the nation’s history. The first recipient was George Washington. Others included famous names such as Thomas Edison, Joe Louis, Walt Disney, the Wright Brothers, the Rev. Martin Luther King and the Tuskegee Airmen.

The medals will be given out in Washington at some point. The U.S. Mint will strike one gold medal for display at the Smithsonian Institution. Surviving pilots or their families can purchase bronze replicas. (4)

Today, female pilots in the armed forces are commonplace and perform outstanding service. Their acceptance and success are due in large part to the initiative and outstanding achievements of their flying sisters of more than six decades ago.

+++++++++++

FACTS for the TEXT IN RED+BOLD:

1. ONLY FIFTEEN PERCENT of the WASP flying was to ferry aircraft. Many more miles were flown target towing, test flying, and EVERY other type mission flown in the US by male pilots-- in EVERY type plane in the Army Air Force Arsenal.

2. WASP DID NOT fly planes all over the world --only in the US and rarely across the Canadian border.

3. Mabel Rawlinson was killed in an accident--and it is accurate to say it was a training accident--but Mabel was not in training. She had graduated from Army Air Force flight training and was flying She an operational flight mission. The men on the ground were the ones being trained--as she towed targets behind her aircraft. Gunnery cadets at Camp Davis North Carolina would shoot at a sleeve target--using live ammunition. Very brave lady, indeed

4. Each WASP or representative of the family of a surviving WASP will be awarded a replica medal. Additional medals will be made available for sale to the public.

WASP History Reaching Around the World!

With your kind permission--this article will continue to be UPDATED with information as it occurs. Consequently, it will be 'republished' using the current date when information is added.

Thank you!

Wonderful ripples from inspirational, patriotic WASP are spreading their way around the world. As a direct result of this campaign for the Congressional Gold Medal, MANY WASP who have never been asked, are being featured as the 'local hero' in their hometown papers. Some have even had national exposure (CNN, NPR, Reader's Digest, AF Times). It has been rewarding in every way, seeing these stories and seeing the photographs and the videos of WASP ACROSS AMERICA. Almost all of them are posted or linked on the Face Book site and the Wings Across America press page.

These WASP were asked about their service during WWII-- and, because WASP were stationed at 120 different Army Air Bases around the country with different flying missions at each base, no two stories are alike! EVERY story adds another colorful piece to the vast WASP mosaic of inspirational history!

Below is a list of a few WASP who have been interviewed- just in the last few months!

The truly exciting thing is that, once any article goes online, it can be seen around the world. In fact, I put a little widget on the medal page, just to keep track of visitors, and we've had people from around the world visit just that page--I stopped counting at 36 countries....

WASP FEATURED IN STORIES & SPEECHES ACROSS THE US.

Lois Dobbins Auchteronie--Washington

Mickey Axton--Minnesota Public Radio

Susie Winston Bain--Texas Austin American Statesman, AF Times

Rae Barnes--Arkansas

Edith Smith Beal--Bridgton, Maine

Betty Blake--Arizona--Reader's Digest --national magazine and online

June Bent--Mass. 2 different newspapers

Frankie Bretherick--Texas 2 different stories in 1 month

Catherine Bridge--California

Nell Stevens Bright--Arizona

Blanche Osborn Bross--Oregon -- featuring her son talking about his mom

B.J. Overman Brown--Maine

Ellen Campbell--Alaska

Duke Caldwell--Illinois

Mary 'Pat' Hiller Call--Washington

Slyvia Clayton--Tucson, AZ

Iris Critchel--California

Mildred Dalrymple, Texas -- Austin ABC news video, ceremony w/ Rep.

Jane Doyle--Grand Rapids, Michigan

Vivian Eddy--San Diego, California

Madeline Eggleston--Texas

Dorothy Eppstein--Kalamazoo, MI news + video

Eleanor Faust -- Orient, New York online video & newspaper

Grace Clark Fender--Texas --1 of 4 WASP featured on Congressman Mac Thornberry's website

Geraldine Tribble Vickers Crockett, Stevens, AK

Eileen Ferguson--Calif.

Ruth Shaffer Fleisher--Florida Miami Herald

Maxine Flournoy --Texas front page, Corpus Christi paper--reprinted in Dallas Morning News

Rosa Lea Fullwood -- Texas (Front page AOPA news--worldwide coverage + local TX newspaper w/ color photo)

Ann Gleezer--Con.

Elaine Harmon--Maryland (White House Press Release)

Sarah Payne Hayden--Mass.

Marion Hodgson--Texas -- TV and newspapers (Dallas & Wichita Falls)

Aline Rhonie Hofheimer--New York

Ruth Brown Humphries--Colorado

Bee Haydu--New Jersey & Florida (White House Press Release)

Pearl Judd--Califorfnia

Alberta Kinney--NY-- honored on the floor of the House of Rep. 3 days after she died

Eleanor Lawry--Danbury, Conneticut

Joan Michaels Lemley--Virginia--ceremony w/ Rep. Wolf

Dorothy Lucas--San Antonio, Texas ABC Station + local news

Margaret Neyman Martin-- Washington

Kathryn Miles--Eugene, Oregon--newspaper, visit in home by Senator Wyden

Anna Flynn Monkewicz--Oregon--Ceremony w/ Senator Wyden

Lois Nash--South Carolina

Doris Nathan--Kalamazoo, MI news + video

Geri Nyman--front page of Casa Grande, AZ paper

Geraldine Olinger--California

Phyllis Johnson Paradis--Bass Harbor, Maine

Sue Parish--Kalamazoo, MI news

Deanie Parrish--Texas. NPR "All Things Considered," CNN, local paper

Betty Pfister--Colorado--front page of the Aspen Times, Colorado

Genevieve Rausch--New York--by US Rep on in local newspaper

Mabel Rawlinson--Kalamazoo, MI

Marjorie Rees--KS Kansas City Star

Ola Rexroat--South Dakota

Shutsy Reynolds--Pennsylvania

Barbara Manchester Robinson--Tullahoma, TN -- Beechcraft museum display, local newspaper

Lorraine Rodgers--Virginia -- CNN live interview (White House Press Release)

Barbara Donahue Ross--Virginia--front page of Fauquier Times Democrat

Fran Roher Sargent--Florida Miami Herald

Joyce Secciani--San Diego, California

Janet Lee H. Simpson--Jacksonville, Florida

Edith Upson Smith, Green Valley, AZ

Helen Snapp--Miami, Florida

Henrietta Speckles Sproat--Oroville, California

Alyce Stevens Roher--Pasadena, California

Elizabeth Strohfus--Minnesota Public Radio

Virginia Sweet--NY-- her obit was carried in the AF Times

Margaret Phelan Taylor--Calif. -- TV Pentagon Channel & local + local newspaper & AF TIMES

Jane Tedeschi--Conn. CNN video and online story

Marcella Tucker--California

Mary Alice Vandeventer--Lueders, Texas newspaper and awarded Lifetime Membership in VFW

Barry Vincent--Florida

Florine Watson--Texas--TV and newspaper

Margaret Weiss--California

Violet Wierzbecki--Flint, MI

Beverly Wilkinson--Sedona, Arizona

Virginia Wood--Fairbanks, Alaska

Lillian Yonally--Troy, New York

NON-WASP INTERVIEWS ABOUT WASP:

Nicole Malachowski--interviewed and quoted nationwide--NPR, TV, all about the WASP

Nancy Parrish--interviewed and quoted--nationwide--all about the WASP

Amy Strebe--NPR SAN DIEGO--local show that is broadcast nationwide

Needless to say, this has been extraordinary. I am so grateful for those who have joined our campaign--ESPECIALLY MAJOR "FIFI" Malachowski--who really became the "WASP Champion!"

I know there will be MORE and MORE WASP honored and spotlighted all over the country! Plus, this list does not include WASP who have heard personally from one or both of their Senators -- or the Senators staff have reached out to "their WASP" -- or the Representatives who mention "THEIR WASP" on the floor of the House, or in a special proclamation, or a ceremony (one just happened this weekend at the State Capitol in Austin).

If you have not visited the 'S.614' page, please stop by! It is now the PL (PUBLIC LAW) 111-40 page!!! I have listed many thank you's on this page and will continue to update information on this extraordinary event!

How many blessings overflowing can we have???

Amazing opportunities to spread the inspirational WASP history EVERYWHERE!! Amazing. Heartwarming. God is definitely in charge!

May He continue to bless those who served and are serving today all around the world, and God, please bless America.

Congressional Record honoring Wings Across America & WASP Deanie Parrish

Jakob Stewart, Office of Congressman Edwards presents Nancy Parrish w/ official 'remarks'

Congressman Chet Edwards officially adds 'extension of remarks' into the Congressional Record, honoring the service of the WASP and the Waco based "Wings Across America" project:

Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Madam Speaker,

I rise as an original co-sponsor of this bill, which honors a group of courageous women pilots—all of whom earned their wings in Texas. During World War II, Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, were stationed at 2 air bases located in Waco, Texas: Waco Army Air Field and Blackland Army Air Base.

One of the 38 members of WASP who died while flying for their country was killed in Waco while flight-testing a BT–13 to make sure that it had been properly repaired. Bettie Mae Scott was killed on July 8, 1944, her body sent home in a cheap pine box, with not so much as an American flag draping her coffin.

Madam Speaker, my district not only played an important part in the history of the WASP, my district is also the home of WASP Deanie Parrish, a Martin Marauder ��–26 pilot, who towed a sleeved target behind her aircraft while a B–24 would pass by and gunnery trainees in the turrets would practice for combat by firing live ammunition, using color coated bullets, at the target.

Wings Across America, founded by Deanie’s daughter, Nancy Parrish, located at Baylor University, has played a key role in the creation and implementation of the bill we have before us today. Along with interviewing over 100 WASP, creating the website, ‘‘WASP on the Web,’’ founding the National WASP WWII Museum in Sweetwater, Texas in 2003 and creating all the exhibits for the opening of the museum in 2005, successfully nominating the WASP for the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame, and designing and creating the ‘‘Fly Girls of WWII’’ WASP exhibit, which is now on display at the Women’s Memorial at Arlington, these 2 volunteers have worked tirelessly to educate and inspire America with the history of the WASP.

This bill honors the WASP and places the WASP history in the national spotlight, where I believe it rightly belongs.

Barnidge: Berkeley's Maggie Gee joins history's heroes

By Tom Barnidge
Contra Costa Times columnist

Posted: 09/11/2009 03:21:43 PM PDT

ALL YOU NEED to know about the Congressional Gold Medal is that the first honoree was George Washington.

The list of recipients honored since for "distinguished achievements and contributions" reads like a Who's Who of modern history: Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, Winston Churchill, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Pope John Paul II ... well, you get the idea.

And then there's the small, soft-spoken, 86-year-old woman who answered the door of her Berkeley residence the other day. Maybe you don't know about Maggie Gee.

"You would have no idea from meeting Maggie that she's the powerhouse that she is," said Berkeley Councilmember Susan Wengraf. "She's had an extraordinary lifetime adventure."

Where to begin? She worked as a shipyard welder and draftsman at the outset of World War II, learned to fly a plane when she was 18, earned degrees in physics and mathematics at UC Berkeley, lived four years in Europe and worked for nearly three decades as an accomplished physicist at Livermore Lab.

And none of those is the reason for which she was chosen.

Gee was honored this year by Congress and President Barack Obama as one of the groundbreaking members of the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, who served in World War II.

Gee explained her unlikely participation — she was one of only two Chinese-Americans to qualify — as if it were a natural evolution, part of some grand scheme she envisioned years earlier.

"When I was growing up," she said, "my heroes were Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. I loved to watch airplanes fly."

Female pilots were rare in 1941, when Gee, a Berkeley native, used her earnings as a draftsman at Mare Island Naval Shipyard to pay for flying lessons in Nevada. ("With the war going on, private planes weren't allowed to fly within 150 miles of the West Coast," she explained of the location.)

The WASPs were recruiting there, and Gee recognized opportunity when it beckoned.

"There were only about 1,100 of us chosen out of 25,000 who applied," she said. "It was an exceptional group of women. We all got the same training as the men."

Even if some of the men were less than supportive.

Gee's story is recounted in a children's book, "Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee," by Marissa Moss, recently published by Berkeley-based Tricycle Press. Moss said unearthing details of the obstacles Gee and other women fliers overcame was like pulling teeth.

"Everything has to be drawn out of her," Moss said. "She's reluctant to talk about any negative experience — when she was growing up in Berkeley, she wasn't allowed to swim in the public pool because she was Chinese-American. I had to pry to get her to admit any of the discrimination she faced from male pilots."

Gee still is hesitant to embellish.

"Some of the men weren't sure we were ready for this," she said. "Women wouldn't put up with that now, but that was a different time."

The WASPs flew domestic, noncombat assignments, often ferrying planes to destinations where they were needed, but that didn't make them immune to danger. Thirty-eight were killed in the line of duty.

Gee primarily flew training planes, instructing male pilots in instrument flying and co-piloting a B-17 bomber in simulated dogfights. And then, almost as quickly as opportunity had arrived, it vanished. The WASPs were disbanded in 1944.

Gee said she didn't fly again. With male pilots returning from the war, there were few job opportunities for women, but she has no regrets.

"Flying was something I did," she said, "and then I moved on."

Her focus today is political activism. Her passion is social progress.

"She has a much deeper, broader life than what happened in the WASPs," Moss said.

When the Berkeley City Council designated Aug. 30 as Maggie Gee Day, an eight-paragraph proclamation touched on her breadth of civic activities.

Between the first "whereas" and the closing "therefore," Gee was applauded as "an icon of public service" for serving on the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, the 1992 Democratic Party Platform Committee and the California State Democratic Executive Board. She was recognized as a past Berkeley Public Works Commissioner, housing advisory commissioner and board member of the Berkeley Community Fund.

Wengraf presented the proclamation at Gee's 86th birthday party, along with a congratulatory note from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and an American flag that had flown over the Capitol.

"The party was astonishing," Moss said. "Everybody in Berkeley politics was there."

Well, sure. How often do you get to share the company of someone in the same club as George Washington?

WWII female pilots finally get recognition--

September 11, 2009 11:09 PM

Jeremy Roebuck

The Monitor

Muriel Martin struggles these days to remember the years she spent as a World War II U.S. Army Air Force pilot.

The dates have run together in her mind and the details of her training and experience long ago faded into the background of a life filled with child rearing and community service.

But some days, the memories push through and she finds herself back in her 20s and in the cockpit again.

“I was flying to Dallas earlier this year and looking out the plane window at clouds just like they were back then,” she said. “It brought back so many memories.”

Martin, now 87, blames her fading recollections on age and the full life she has led since leaving the service.

When it comes to the rest of the country, though, she and the 300 other surviving members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots corps question how America could have largely forgotten what they describe as the “best-kept secret of the war effort.”

For years, the group has fought for recognition of their contribution. Between 1941 and 1944, more than 1,000 women from across the country were trained as military pilots and dispatched to bases such as Mission’s Moore Air Field.

They ferried weapons cross-country, delivered planes from manufacturing plants and towed targets during anti-aircraft gunnery practice, freeing up the men who traditionally held those jobs for combat on the European and Pacific fronts. All told, they piloted 78 different types of military aircraft and logged more than 60 million flight miles.

But when the Army disbanded the corps in 1944, the women went back to their pre-war lives without any of the honors or benefits their male counterparts received.

Just this year, President Barack Obama signed legislation awarding the WASPs the Congressional Gold Medal — one of the nation’s highest civilian honors.

And for Dorothy Lucas — an 86-year-old former WASP at Moore Field who now resides in San Antonio — the tribute couldn’t have come soon enough.

“I hoped it would happen soon,” she said. “I’m not getting any younger.”

‘WE CAME FROM EVERYTHING’

In August 1943, the Germans had just withdrawn from North Africa, U.S. Gen. George S. Patton had completed a successful invasion of Sicily, and Lucas was a 20-year-old secretary working at the Pentagon.

“Everyone was in uniform,” she said. “And everyone wanted to do their part.”

A friend mentioned that the Army was recruiting female pilots for domestic training and Lucas knew she had stumbled on a way to satisfy her recently acquired flight bug.

“My older brother, who I adored, was in the Army Air Corps then,” she said. “I just sort of got into it somehow and just loved it.”

More than 25,000 women volunteered for the newly formed WASPs but fewer than 4 percent made the cut. Because the Army required each candidate to have logged several flight hours and to maintain an active pilot’s license, many of the young women that made it came from affluent backgrounds and families that could afford flight lessons.

But upon arriving in the Abilene suburb of Sweetwater — where all the WASPs received their training — the women were introduced to others from around the country and a form of military discipline they had never encountered before Muriel Martin — then Muriel Kiester — had grown up on a sprawling patch of land in La Feria and had access to her family’s private aircraft. She learned to fly with her grandfather’s backing in 1944.

“Doesn’t everyone want to fly?” she said. “Growing up in La Feria, I just wanted to get way far away. I wanted to see the world.”

“We came from everything — schoolteachers, mothers, secretaries,” said former WASP Ann Hazzard.

‘ODDITIES’

Hazzard, now 88 and co-owner of the Holiday Village Mobile Home & RV Park in Pharr, realized right from the start that her gender would be a constant issue during her time in the service — if not always a problem.

When she arrived for her first Army physical in Fort Wayne, Ind., male soldiers weren’t quite sure what to do with a bunch of women in undergarments waiting for a doctor.

“They looked at us like we were oddities,” she said. “They brought out some towels and made us wrap up in them until we could get to another room.”

Other members of the female corps were ordered to report their menstrual cycles to their training sergeants amid ill-founded fears that menstruation affected a woman’s stability and ability to pilot an aircraft.

And while many former WASPs reported stories of strained relations with their male students and counterparts, most said that the men treated them with respect despite their gender difference.

It was a distinction that Jacqueline Cochran — the most famous female pilot of her day and eventual leader of the WASPs — took pains to emphasize.

When she pitched the idea for a women’s pilot corps to Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, she won one battle for women’s equality. But she emphasized among all of her fledgling pilots the importance of feminine dress and deportment while serving on a military base.

Cochran herself is said to have never left the cockpit of an airplane without reapplying her lipstick and fixing her hair.

Lucas, the San Antonio WASP, said the emphasis on appearance definitely drew attention from the male pilots but also gave the women plenty of opportunity to surprise them — such as a flight she took from Mission to St. Louis with a male officer in 1943.

“I could tell he was very nervous flying with a girl,” she said. “But he was so happy we didn’t crash, he asked me out to dinner at the officer’s club that night.”

‘MY OLD LIFE’

The service did have its risks. Thirty-eight members of the corps lost their lives in the line of duty — some brought down by gunfire in training missions, others by faulty plane mechanics.

Those deaths provided the women with their first glimpse at how the rest of the country viewed their efforts. Because they were members of a civilian auxiliary corps — and were not considered actual military service members — the bodies of those who died were sent home in plain pine boxes at their family’s expense.

The next hurtful indication came in 1944 — when Congress decided to disband the group amid pressure from male pilots who had begun to return home in the final days of the war. All records of the WASPs were ordered classified and sealed for nearly 35 years.

“There was a knock on the door one day, and an officer was there,” said Hazzard. “He said, ‘OK, kids, you can get dressed, get packed, and go home.’

“He turned on his heel, walked out and that was it.”

Many — like Lucas — went back to their former lives searching for something that would recapture their war-year adventures only to be squeezed back into their old jobs and routines that now seemed hopelessly dull.

“I was very disappointed,” she said. “I was young, cute and thin. And suddenly, I had to pay my way back to my old life.”

Others — like Hazzard — only got into a cockpit once or twice more before giving up flying for good.

PIONEERS

It was not until 1977 that President Jimmy Carter signed a bill recognizing their efforts and awarding the women status as veterans — which entitled them to health care benefits and GI Bill education opportunities.

For Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, that recognition came about 30 years too late for the women — many of whom were then in their 50s.

She helped author the bill this year that awarded the women their congressional medals and is currently planning a ceremony to honor them in Washington, D.C.

“The valor and service of the WASP is only one part of their legacy,” she said in a March statement. “Their success in the line of duty paved the way for armed forces to lift the ban on women attending military flight training in the 1970s, and their efforts eventually led to women being fully integrated as military pilots.”

But as Martin stands in her La Feria bedroom a good 60 years after her first military flight, she says she has never felt much like a pioneer.

Despite the pilot’s wings encased on her wall, the painting of the T-6D plane she used to fly and the medal she was given upon her induction to the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame, she has always looked on her wartime experience as just another adventure.

“I don’t know,” she says, rubbing her hands in modesty. “I had never been thrown off a horse before. I figured I wouldn’t get thrown off a plane, either.”

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.

Santa Cruz woman to be awarded Congressional Gold Medal for WWII service

By Austin Walsh

Posted: 09/09/2009 01:30:40 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Between 1942 and 1943, Violet Wierzbicki was a member of the Women Airforce... ( Contributed photo)

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SANTA CRUZ -- Nearly 70 years after she flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, Violet Wierzbicki of Santa Cruz will get the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow on a civilian, recognizing her service to the country.

During World War II, female pilots including Wierzbicki enlisted in the WASP to fill the Air Force's need for pilots to carry out service missions so male pilots could fly in combat. The exclusive group of 1,102 women flew planes like the SBD, A-24 and P-47s and logged more than 60 million miles flying missions across the United States.

Between 1942 and 1943, when she was 25, Wierzbicki towed targets behind her plane so fellow pilots could practice their sharpshooting skills. She was also responsible for ferrying planes from factories to Army Air Force bases and performing test flights.

"I felt so proud to be a flying military aircraft and doing something for my country," said Wierzbicki, who expects to get her medal once it is minted.

Wierzbicki, a native of Flint, Mich., took her first flight when she was 24 to overcome her fear of flying. She was hooked and earned her private pilot's license when she was 25.

"I got curious and wanted to know what it would feel like to fly by the seat of my pants," Wierzbicki said. "So I took one lesson and then I wanted to continue, to solo and then got a private pilot's license."

After returning home from war, Wierzbicki attempted to get a job as a pilot at a small commercial airline in Flint, but was told that she looked too young and people would not want to fly with her because she was a woman. She eventually worked as a secretary for GM and U.S. Steel.

It wasn't until this year that Wierzbicki and her fellow pilots were formally honored for their service. On July 1, President Barack Obama signed a bill awarding all former WASP pilots or their surviving family members the medal to commemorate the women's daring and service. WASP pilots had never gained formal or public recognition for their service.

"The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II were trailblazers and true patriots. They risked their lives in service to our nation, but for too long their contribution to the war effort has been undervalued or under-recognized," Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland wrote in the bill she co-sponsored with all 16 other female members of the Senate.

According to Mikulski, WASP pilots had no benefits and no insurance during their time spent flying. And the families of female pilots who died in flight had to pay to have the bodies of their loved ones shipped home.

Though WASP members were promised military benefits when they were enlisted, they had to wait until 1977 for Congress to grant them.

Wierzbicki and fellow WASP pilots will join the ranks of other Congressional Gold Medal winners such as Thomas Edison, Nelson Mandela and the Wright brothers.

Today, former California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson will speak at a party at Dominican Oaks retirement home in Santa Cruz, where Wierzbicki lives, to celebrate her military flying career.

She and fellow pilots will be invited to Washington, D.C., for a formal presentation of the medals once its design has been finalized and cast. After the presentation, the original medal will be displayed at the Smithsonian Institute. Wierzbicki hopes to fly to Washington, D.C., for the presentation.

"It's a great honor to all of us," Wierzbicki said.

reposted from the Mercury News