Easter Sunday at Avenger Field, 1944

Holidays are tough to celebrate in wartime and Easter Sunday of 1944 was no different.  Most of the trainees were from parts of the country that were now in full bloom with spring flowers and beautiful trees.  In Sweetwater,  Texas, the snowstorms of February had melted and there was a hint of green peeking through the open landscape of West Texas.

The one constant was the wind, which  still blew as the trainees pushed thru to make up for the days playing in the snow, when planes were grounded.   Graduation was around the corner for class 44-W-3.   Temperatures were beginning to register just about perfect, with highs in the mid '70's.

Easter was coming!


The following article is reprinted from "THE AVENGER" Vol. 1, NO 15 published April 7, 1944: 

"SUNRISE SERVICE ON FLIGHT LINE EASTER MORNING"

    Trainees will observe Easter Sunday with a mass "sunrise service" on the flight line.  The service will begin shortly after 7 o'clock.  Arrangements are being made to broadcast the religious program over station KXOX, Sweetwater.

    A large chorus of WASP trainees will sing a number of religious songs.  Ellen Wimberly is directing musical selections and urges all trainees to participate.  Rehearsals began April 4.  The MRTC orchestra from Camp Barkeley will accompany the chorus.

    Rev. Ernest J. Werfelmann, Lutheran U.S.O. representative at Abilene, will conduct the services.
   
    The sunrise service is the first large-scale religious program of its kind conducted at Avenger Field. Mrs. Helen Shaw, Establishment Officer in charge, hopes for 100 percent participation from trainees.

WASP Program at Fort Hood

WASP program part of OTC observance Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 26 2011 02:36 PM

U.S. Army/Larry Furnace
Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, Operational Test Command’s leader, presents Deanie Parrish, left, and her daughter, Nancy Parrish, with commander’s coins for their presentation on the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots program Thursday during Women’s History Month. Deanie was a WASP, and Nancy has spent the past 15 years developing a website and virtual museum to tell the story of the first female military pilots of America.

Kileen Daily Herald

Texas Gov. Ann Richards once said that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only she did it backward and in high heels.

That sentiment certainly resonates with Nancy Parrish, whose mother, Deanie Parrish, was a member of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots. These female aviators flew noncombat missions within the United States during World War II, freeing male pilots to fight the war. And they did it without the benefits their male counterparts enjoyed.

Nancy, a former Public Broadcasting Service producer/director, was the guest speaker at the Operational Test Command Women's History Month observance Thursday, bringing her mother along as a special guest. Hosted by Operational Test Command's Aviation Test Directorate, the WASP program was the brainchild of Ronni Parsons, a test directorate operational research systems analyst.

"It was a very different time in America before World War II," Nancy said. "American women weren't expected to be leaders; they were expected to be mothers, housewives, maybe secretaries.

"If they went to college, they didn't take classes in avionics, politics or debate. They took typing and stenography."

But Dec. 7, 1941, (the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) changed everything, Nancy said.

"Our innocence was shattered, and for the first time in our country's history, women were invited to help in the fight," she said. "And the campaign in North Africa cost us a lot of pilots."

All the services started recruiting women, Nancy said, and it wasn't long before America's foremost female aviator, Jacqueline Cochran, had the idea that women could be trained to fly weather, ferrying, target-towing, flight training and cargo transport missions. Cochran was able to convince Gen. Hap Arnold, the Army Air Corps commander, that her idea would work, and the program got under way at the Houston airport in 1942.

Twenty-five thousand women applied, but only 1,830 were accepted into the program. They came from all walks of life, Parrish said, and they did it because they wanted to serve their country and they loved flying. By the time the last class graduated in 1944, she said, WASP had flown more than 60 million miles.

"These women went through the same flight training as the men," she said. "They flew dilapidated planes; they flew every kind of aircraft, and they flew every kind of mission except combat. Initially, they had to provide their own uniforms.

"When the WASP disbanded, these women had to pay their way back home," Nancy said. "Thirty-eight of them were killed, but because they had no benefits, the women had to take up collections to get their bodies back home to their families."

WASP military records were sealed, stamped "classified" and filed in government archives for 33 years, and it wasn't until 1977 that Congress voted to give WASP veteran status.

"They were the best-kept secret of World War II," Nancy said. "They weren't even invited to the bill signing and received no official thank you from then-President Carter."

Finally, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Tx. and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., sponsored bipartisan legislation in 2009 to grant Congressional gold medals to WASP. At the ceremony in 2010, Deanie Parrish was among the 175 WASPs who received the honon (and accepted the award on behalf of all the WASP).

"For me it was both an honor and a privilege," Deanie said. "I have always believed that with God, all things are possible."

Presenting commander's coins to both women, Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, Operational Test Command's commanding general, said he was at a loss for words. "I can't imagine what kind of human being it takes who looked at all the challenges and said, 'I'm going to overcome that.'"
______________

More information about WASP is available at www.wingsacrossamerica.us .
More on Deanie Parrish
More on Nancy Parrish
"WASP In Their Own Words, an Illustrated History," by Nancy Parrish

WASP BECOMES AN EAGLE!

Waco woman to be recognized for WWII service...

By Regina Dennis
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Monday April 4, 2011

A Waco woman who has worked to spread the history of civilian* female pilots who served during World War II will be inducted into a prestigious group of aviation pioneers this June.

Deanie Parrish will be one of 14 aviators inducted as Eagles by the Gathering of Eagles program at Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.

Parrish was among the 1,102 female pilots trained as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, to fly U.S.-based training missions during World War II.

Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

Waco resident Deanie Parish will be inducted as an Eagle by the Air Command and Staff College for her contributions as a WWII Woman Airforce Service Pilot.

The 30th annual event, to be held May 31 through June 5, recognizes veteran aviation pioneers and connects them with Air Force officers who are graduating from the college’s yearlong leadership training program.

Past honorees include astronaut Neil Armstrong and President George H.W. Bush. Parrish is the 18th woman and fourth WASP to be inducted as an Eagle.

“It’s become an interaction between the seasoned and future military leadership so we, the future leaders, can learn from their lessons learned and some of the different events and historical moments that they went through,” said Air Force Maj. Kristi Beckman, who will graduate from the program this May.

Beckman traveled to Waco on Thursday to meet Parrish, whom Beckman selected as her personal Eagle for the awards ceremony.

Beckman has produced a video documentary of Parrish’s accomplishments and will interview her for a Q&A session with the college’s 508 graduating officers during the Gathering of Eagles celebration.

Parrish spent more than four hours Friday signing her name to 400 copies of a lithograph painting that portrays this year’s 14 Eagles. The lithographs will be sold to raise money for the nonprofit Gathering of Eagles.

Parrish said she was surprised to be selected for the award, noting that other honorees this year include a Tuskegee Airman, the current NASA administrator, a former CIA director and a Tactical Air Party Controller who had 80 percent of his body burned by a bomb in Afghanistan but chose to continue to serve.

“When you see what all this group has accomplished, I don’t know how they chose little old me,” Parrish said with a smile.

But Beckman said Parrish’s determination to learn to fly and serve her country paved the way for other women to do the same.

“If it wasn’t for women like her, the WASP, I don’t even know what the Air Force would look like for women, and I don’t know if we’d even have these opportunities,” said Beckman, who has been in the Air Force for 14 years. “To read about her story is just inspiring, because she didn’t care what anyone told her.”

Learning to fly
Parrish was working as a teller at a bank in her hometown of Avon Park, Fla., when the Army Air Force started an aviation school in town to train new male pilots in advance of the impending Word War II.

“There were all these good-looking flight instructors coming in every week to cash their checks,” Parrish said, laughing. “And then I started to see the cadets, and I thought, ‘They’re my peers, they’re the same age I am, and they’re learning to fly airplanes. . . . Why can’t I learn to fly?’ ”

Convinced she should be a given a chance to fly, Parrish persuaded one of the instructors to train her to fly in his private plane.

Parrish later learned about a civilian flight training program to prepare women for at-home flight missions while male pilots were sent to fight overseas. She paid her own way to travel by train to Avenger Air Field in Sweetwater in 1944 to enter the program.

After completing the seven-month training, Parrish was assigned as a test pilot at Greenville Air Force Base in Mississippi to fly newly repaired planes before they could be used by male instructors and cadets for training flights.
Parrish’s next assignment was at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., where she trained to fly the B-26 “Martin Marauder” planes. She flew the twin-engine bombers as a tow-target pilot, pulling a white banner behind her that gunner pilots shot live ammunition rounds at for target practice.

Parrish stayed at Tyndall until the WASPs were disbanded. She married Lt. Bill Parrish, who served in her unit at the base.

“It was a job that needed to be done, and it was for my country and that’s what I did it for,” Parrish said. “And when it was over, it was over, and I went on with my life.”

Parrish has spent the past 15 years working with her daughter, Nancy, a former producer for KWBU, to chronicle the WASPs’ history. The duo have put together a documentary of interviews with 115 WASPs, created a traveling and permanent WASP exhibit, and helped found a WASP museum in Sweetwater.

“I think the need is not just for the history,” Nancy Parrish said. “I think people are hungry these days for pillars, for role models, for people they can look up to who have the best-lived lives, people who seemed to go above and beyond.”

The WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, the highest honor for civilians, for their service. Deanie Parrish accepted the award on behalf of the fewer than 300 remaining WASPs at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., last spring.

rdennis@wacotrib.com
757-5755

MORE ABOUT DEANIE PARRISH
CSPAN VIDEO GOLD MEDAL CEREMONY
WINGS ACROSS AMERICA
WASP ON THE WEB
LINK TO ALBUM
photos of Major Beckman, WASP Deanie Parrish, Regina Dennis and the WACO experience



* WASP were considered civilians until 1977, when they were awarded their honorable discharges and veteran status, by act of Congress.


Thank you to the Waco Tribune Herald, for publishing the original article.  This has been most respectfully posted and linked online so that our many, many visitors around the world can read it.   Thank you, Regina, for doing such a great job!

Woman World War II pilot honored Pinkley served in WASPs, remembered as pioneer in U.S. military aviation

An ABOVE and BEYOND TRIBUTE TO A WASP-- recorded here in a wonderful article by Adam Wallworth.  Link to original article is above.  This act of kindness by Vicki Roberts and the Marion County Heritage Society is worth preserving here in a place where we honor the WASP and their service.  THANK YOU Vicki, for your heart warming tribute to an unsung WASP and thank you, Adam, for your article.


+++++++++++++++++++++++

By Adam Wallworth

Posted: November 12, 2010 at 5:49 a.m.

YELLVILLE (ARKANSAS) — Thirty people gathered Thursday in a Yellville cemetery to honor a pioneer of American military aviation.

Avanell Pinkley was among the first women to fly military aircraft as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II. Her accomplishment was finally honored Thursday, more than 30 years after her death.

Pinkley and her fellow pilots, known as WASPs, flew all types of noncombat missions, said Vicki Roberts, chairman of the Marion County Heritage Society.

Pinkley joined the elite group after graduating from Army flight school in 1943 as part of the service’s second class - the “Singing Second,” Roberts said.

The women flew every type of combat aircraft in noncombat roles, such as ferrying planes from factories to military bases and towing drones and aerial targets. That freed up male pilots for combat service.
Pinkley died destitute in a Harrison nursing home in 1977 at age 64.

Roberts said she didn’t know about Pinkley until being contacted by Wings Across America, a group that is collecting information about the women. She said she immediately began researching Pinkley and working to get a marker placed on her tombstone.

“I was just kind of appalled” that her tombstone had no information on her service to her country, Roberts said at the graveside Thursday.

Roberts enlisted the American Legion Lodge 61 to help, and the group placed a small plaque on Pinkley’s tombstone identifying her as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. The group also took its honor guard to the cemetery to celebrate Pinkley’s service on Veterans Day.

From about 25,000 applicants, Pinkley was one of 1,074 women who made it through the selection and training process to become WASPs. The women also flew some aircraft that their male counterparts thought were unsafe.
The B-26 Martin Marauder, known as the “widow-maker,” was among those that some people thought were too dangerous for women, a fact noted in the act that awarded the women the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award that can be bestowed upon a civilian.

Congress granted the women veteran status in 1977, some 33 years after the service was disbanded. Together, the women flew more than 60 million miles, and 38 of them were killed.

The group was quietly disbanded Dec. 20, 1944. Records detailing their service were classified until the 1980s and have been omitted in many historical accounts of the war, the act states.

At the time, everyone knew about the WASPs, but recognition wasn’t all that important, said Rae Barnes of Hot Springs.

“I loved it,” Barnes said. “I got to fly airplanes.”

Barnes is the only remaining WASP in the state, said Nancy Parrish, executive director of Wings Across America.
Parrish started the organization to chronicle the history of the women who served with her mother. She is spearheading an effort to record video interviews with WASP members and recently published a book of interviews with the women.

Roberts said she will continue researching Pinkley’s life and has already added Pinkley’s story to a growing monument of Marion County veterans who are honored in a permanent display at the American Legion hut in Yellville.

Toward the end of the war, the WASPs hoped they would earn the chance to do something else in aviation, butthat didn’t happen, said Helen Rownd of Louisiana.

Rownd, who served with Pinkley, said that when the group disbanded, the women were sent home and even had to pay their own way. She said they didn’t get the jobs they hoped for but paved the way for future women pilots.
Civil Air Patrol Capt. Margaret Reger said that while thewomen didn’t see combat, their jobs were dangerous.
Reger said the women flew bullet-riddled aircraft to the “boneyard,” where the planes were retired, and delivered brand-new planes. They also towed targets for new pilots to shoot at, she said.

“They were expendable, but they were glad to be expendable because they were flying,” she said.
Rownd said the women enjoyed the experience while it lasted. As far as towing targets, she said, “as long as you heard rat-a-tat-tat, it was all right.

“But when you heard a ping,” she said, “you had to wonder.”
_________

Reposted from the original article with additional photos from Wings Across America

WASP IN THEIR OWN WORDS-- BOOK SIGNING IN WACO ON VETERAN'S DAY!

 

If you're near Waco, Texas on Veteran's Day, stop by and say 'hi!'

Here is the BACK of the invitation!

An Honor of Extraordinary Proportions

by Nancy Parrish
_______

On the **cover of the ‘Flyer’ (right) is a spectacular photograph that captures an amazing event held March 10, 2010: a ceremony to award the Women Airforce Service Pilots the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow on a civilian. That moment was the culmination of many years of hard work and persistence by one very determined Daedalian (James Connally Flight), who is standing at the podium, her back to the camera, her eyes on her WASP peers.   She also happens to be my mom, WASP Deanie Parrish.

Surrounding her are the shining faces of over two hundred WASP in attendance in the Capitol’s  Emancipation Hall.  As Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We had to turn hundreds of people away because we didn’t have a room big enough to contain the admiration that we all have for you.”   It was the largest crowd in history to gather inside the Capitol! 

I marvelled at the parade of thank you’s.   In just a few words, each speaker offered their own heart-felt tribute, from bill sponsors Sen Hutchison and Sen. Mikulski, Rep Ros-Lehtinen and Susan Davis, to Tom Brokaw and SECAF Michael Donley.

Lt. Col. Nicole Malachowski (first female Thunderbird Pilot, combat vet and author of the first draft of the bill), said, “Despite the incredible barriers that were placed in their path... They have always focused on their opportunity to fly, the privilege of serving their country, and the importance of the mission they set out and accomplished.  To me, they are the embodiment of the word, ‘integrity’.”

Tributes followed from Rep. Boehner and Sen Harry Reid, with Sen McConnell adding, “We honor them for reaffirming with their lives not only America’s enduring commitment to freedom, but many other deeply American qualities: an impatience with artificial obstacles to success,  a commitment to excellence, guts, daring, and the willingness, once victory is won, to quietly walk away, content to return to ordinary life.” 

Summing up, the Speaker added, “All of us send you our gratitude for your service, for your patriotism, and for your boundless optimism that the sky is not even the limit anymore for the women of our nation.   The patriotism of the WASP  blazed a trail for the women that came after — in flight, in the field of battle, and even in the Congress of the United States.”  In an unscripted moment, she said, “May I just say... all things considered, your receiving this award brings added luster to the Congressional Gold Medal.”

Added luster, indeed.

Finally, stepping to the podium, facing the crowd of over 2,500 (not including several overflow rooms and a world wide television audience), was the one lone WASP, accepting the award on behalf of all the WASP.  For six minutes she spoke, interrupted by applause 7 times.  At one point, Tom Brokaw rose and adjusted her microphone.  Undeterred, she continued, “Over 65 years ago, we each served our country without any expectations of recognition or glory,  and we did it without compromising the values that we were taught as we grew up: honor, integrity, patriotism, service,  faith, and commitment.  We did it because our country needed us.”  She then thanked everyone -- from those who helped lobby Congress to the artists who designed the medal.  She closed with: “I believe I speak for every WASP when I say that it was both a privilege and an honor to serve our country during some of the darkest days of World War II... God bless all of you and God bless all our troops, who are keeping our country free.” 

I am, as you would expect, very proud of my mom.  She meant it, every word.

So, for my mom and all the WASP, THANK YOU DAEDALIANS  for recognizing their service by inviting the WASP to become Daedalians in 2002.  Your national recognition was one of many significant steps that brought them to our capitol on this miraculous day in March.  A miraculous day, indeed.  I know, I was smiling from the front row!
________

**Magazine cover design  by Nancy Parrish
Photo used with permission from the Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Fotogliph
WASP Gold Medal graphics used with permission

POSTER available online

Original article  published in Daedalus Flyer Fall 10   

A Tough Thing to Do

It has been a long week.  We've lost 4 WASP and 1 Flight instructor -- that I know of.  Their stories have now been added to  the WASP Final Flight page and to Facebook.

I've realized that it may be a tough thing to do-- to decide whether or not to 'like' a post for a WASP who has made her final flight.  I would hesitate, and I'm the one posting them.    I know some of you may be hesitating as well.

It is hard to post them.  This week, it seems that posting these sad messages has been all I've had time to do.

But I have discovered the joy of sharing these lives with you and I hope their stories have meant more than just something sad.  I hope they have lifted you as well.   What a joy these ladies are to know -- and, even nearer the end of their lives, we can still learn so much from each of them.

So, please consider posting  "thumbs up"  when you read a post, sad tho it may be.    To me, it is your way of saying "yes" to the life she was blessed to live and the difference she has made -- and, if it has touched you, say that too, so that more will be uplifted. 

I'm sorry there are so many.  There will be more.  Tom Brokaw called the WASP 'emblematic' of the Greatest Generation, and they are all leaving us much too soon. 

Have we learned the lessons they have tried to teach us?   There are so, so many, and the examples and stories come alive for me -- they spell honor, integrity, service, commitment, patriotism, faith... and on and on...

There are less than 300 WASP -- all over 85.  To me, they are all larger than life.

Pray for the WASP and their families. 
Pray for those in harms way serving today. 

God, please continue to bless America.

Respectfully posted by nancy parrish
FACEBOOK
WASP FINAL FLIGHT

WASP Virginia Wood honored as a PIONEER CONSERVATIONIST

Feds honor conservationist Wood

Anchorage Daily News

Published: August 12th, 2010 09:53 PM

FAIRBANKS -- Pioneer conservationist Virginia "Ginny" Wood, 92, of Fairbanks has been awarded the Service Citizens Award by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 

The ceremony, with more than a dozen friends and family members present, took place in a hand-hewn log cabin that Wood built in the 1950s. 

Wood, a warplane ferry pilot during World War II, (WASP) arrived in Alaska in 1947. She started the renowned Camp Denali at Denali National Park and has mentored countless young conservationists. 

"Ginny Wood has left her mark on the landscape of Alaska and made an indelible impression on Alaska's conservation community," said Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould. "Because of her remarkable foresight, some of Alaska's most treasured places remain untrammeled and are enjoyed by people from throughout the world."

Wood and Celia Hunter, her longtime companion, met as World War II pilots and were later dubbed the "grand dames of the environmental movement'' by former Gov. Jay Hammond. Hunter died in 2001. 

Wood lobbied the Eisenhower administration to set aside what became the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, co-founding the Alaska Conservation Society in the process. 

In addition, Wood led opponents of the Rampart Dam, which would have flooded the entire Yukon Flats, in the 1960s. She was also an active opponent of the Project Chariot proposal, which would have used nuclear explosives to blast a harbor in Northwest Alaska.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/08/12/1407775/feds-honor-conservationist-wood.html#ixzz0wVROgAws

 reposted 8/13/2010

Women's Museum exhibit lets history take flight

By Gaile Robinson

grobinson@star-telegram.com

Most Americans know about Amelia Earhart and that Sally Ride was the first female U.S. astronaut to enter space, but the stories of women who fought incredible prejudices between Earhart's disappearance in 1937 and Ride's re-entry in 1983 are lost in the murk of forgotten history.

There were scores of female aviators who fought long, difficult battles to be accorded the same joy, privilege and excitement that men had been given when they were granted wings.

The Women's Museum in Dallas has mounted an exhibition, "Dreams of Flight: A Journey Through Air and Space," through Oct. 31, that highlights the glorious achievements of the first female aviators and follows the path they cleared for the eventual inclusion of women in the space program.

There are more than 40 stories of the contributions women made in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math -- it's not just about the thrills of soaring above the Earth. The show is orchestrated to appeal to young women who might benefit from knowing the heroics of these pioneers. And even though Earhart's legacy has been the dominant story of female fliers for almost 75 years -- she was the first woman to make a nonstop trans-Atlantic flight and became so popular she had a line of women's wear named after her -- she is given no more wall space than Jacqueline Cochran, who led the WASPs during World War II, or Jeana Yeager, a Fort Worth native who circumnavigated the globe nonstop with a partner without refueling.

These are the surprises that the wall texts have in store. They are the reward to the visitor for reading the details. But there is a meagerness to the exhibit that is unavoidable. Few objects have been saved from the days of these sky pioneers, as it was a male-dominated industry, and only a bit remains from recent years.

The lack of latter-day ephemera is a good sign, says curator Nicole Gilbert, the museum's registrar and exhibitions director. Now that women are no longer considered oddities in the field, there is less reason to save their flight suits and helmets or single them out for attention.

These recent achievements, however, will not soothe the feminist's fire at reading the text panel about Bessie Coleman, the first licensed African-American woman pilot. In 1920, Coleman was denied admittance to every flight school in the U.S., and no American pilot would train her. Coleman had to go to France to find an aviation school that would admit an African-American woman.

That incendiary outrage of injustice is aroused time and again, such as when the WASPs were disbanded in 1944 because male pilots complained that they were losing work to women. And again in 1962, when John Glenn, the first astronaut to orbit the Earth, testified about the suitability of female astronauts to a 1962 congressional panel, and said, "Men go off and fight the wars and fly airplanes."

NASA's 13 female astronauts at that time, who had passed the first rigorous round of testing, were sent home. NASA cited their lack of military jet experience (despite the fact that women weren't allowed to fly military jets) and that none of the candidates had an engineering degree. Female astronaut hopefuls were not invited back to NASA for 16 years.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/04/2384142/womens-museum-exhibit-lets-history.html#ixzz0w85xMBcG

Why is the dramatic life story of Cochran so unknown to many? She was born in poverty and learned to fly so she could better service her cosmetics company. She eventually rose to become director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier and during her life had more speed records than any other pilot. Who knew?

The facts are simply stated on the walls; there is no feminist agenda at work, and there is no rancor in the voices of the aviators who speak on videotape. The young women for whom this show is cast may not even notice the gender inequities of the past. It's certainly not the focus of the show -- the triumphs are -- but is it difficult to see the joys of air speed on the third floor of the 100-year-old Fair Park building. The inspirations and exaltations are moored to the narratives on the walls.

Deanie Parrish, Nancy Parrish, Nicole Gilbert
in front of Deanie's Digital Scrapbook

What can be displayed are the flight suits that get uglier with each successive decade. Harriet Quimby's is the best -- her ankle-length burgundy satin coat accessorized with goggles, gauntlet gloves, ivory silk scarf and pearls from 1912 is light-years more attractive than the serviceable blue jumpsuit worn by Yeager in 1986. The fashions of the aviatrix will not sell the dream.

There are a few interactive displays, and one is quite charming. Nancy Parrish, the daughter of one of the early WASPs, Deanie Bishop Parrish, took her mother's photographs of her early life and WASP training in Sweetwater and turned it into a digitized scrapbook. Photos of the trainees being hauled around in a former cattle truck and doing their morning calisthenics on the parched landscape of West Texas make the experience look harsh and formidable, but Parrish's enthusiastic comments and joy for learning to fly completely negate the lack of amenities at the flight school. The scrapbook can be viewed on a screen in the gallery or you can see it at home. *Visit www.yudu.com and in the search box type "WASP World War II scrapbook." Parrish's scrapbook is one of several options presented.

Also on display is a tube that approximates the size of Yeager's fuselage. This is the young woman from Fort Worth who set the record for the first around-the-world flight without needing to refuel in 1986. The plane carried two very cramped passengers and 1,200 gallons of fuel. What's on view is only a large pipe with a small chair inside to replicate the confined cockpit of her plane Voyager; it's no more sophisticated than a fort made of sofa cushions.
To appreciate this exhibit, you will have to take the time to read the wall texts -- and then it is not the exhibit that impresses, but the realization of ignorance.

Gaile Robinson is the Star-Telegram art and design critic, 817-390-7113.

Read WASP WWII SCRAPBOOK
choose "options" + "single page"



Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/04/2384142_p2/womens-museum-exhibit-lets-history.html#ixzz0w85gsrVc

WASP Anita Mathew honored with the Congressional Gold Medal

REPOSTED FROM THE LITCHFIELD, CT ONLINE .BZ

Litchfield Bancorp customer Anita Matthew receives Congressional Gold Medal courtesy of Litchfield Bancorp

Anita Mathew during World War II Anita Matthew can still recall the cover of that Life Magazine, the one showing a woman standing on the wing of a plane she flew for the Air Force during World War II. "I found it enchanting," said Matthew, a Litchfield Bancorp customer since 1976. "I loved to fly and I wanted to find out what this woman was doing.” A college sophomore at the time and an experienced pilot of small planes, Matthew read the magazine's story on the Women Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPs, and decided to become one. Style of plane flown by Anita Mathew during World War II WASPs performed key duties during the war, flying military aircraft from factories to air bases on the East and West Coasts and testing planes. The contributions of the WASPs allowed the military to save male pilots for combat duty in Europe and the Pacific. About 1,100 women flew as WASPs before the program was disbanded in 1944*. Matthew, 88, is one of about 300 living WASPs. In March, many of the women traveled to the U.S. Capitol to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors awarded. Matthew did not make the trip and is still waiting for her medal, although the wait is expected to end soon. Reggie Harrison, a Vietnam veteran from Morris, is working with U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy to locate Matthew's medal and set up a presentation for later in the spring or summer. Congressional Gold Medal announcement with a vintage photo There are five other living WASPs in Connecticut: Jane Tadeschi of Bethany, Ann Gleszner of Danbury, Gloria Heath of Greenwich, Jane Miller of Branford and Marcia Milner of Essex. Along with Matthew, the women showed valor and selfless service to their country, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd said in presenting the Congressional Gold Medals. "These six women from Connecticut, along with hundreds of other women from across the country, bravely answered the call to service during World War II, at a time when female pilots were uncommon," Dodd said. As a high school student in tiny Colfax, Wis., Matthew was taught to fly small Piper cubs by a family friend who had been a Navy pilot. "He came to my Dad and asked if we wanted to learn to fly," Matthew said of she and her brother, Dana. "My Dad asked us and I said sure. Dana wanted to but couldn't, because he was color blind." Matthew was so taken by the Life Magazine story that she decided to drop out of college and apply for the WASP program. She was accepted and was sent to Dennison, Sweetwater,* Tex., for training. Accustomed to small planes, Matthew was shocked when she saw the size of the military aircraft she would be trained to fly. She started on the smaller PT-17s and worked her way up to larger planes, including Boeing and Lycoming models. Following training, Matthew was stationed in Lubbock, Tex., for about five months before the WASP program was disbanded. "It didn't last long because the male pilots were beginning to come home from the war and we were no longer needed," Matthew said. "But it was probably still the most exciting time of my life." WASPs were considered civilians but were paid as second lieutenants and eventually were granted veteran status. After her stint as a WASP ended, Matthew returned to the University of Wisconsin and earned a degree in home economics. She also earned a commercial pilot license but couldn't land a job in a male-dominated business. "They didn't think women could fly, even though I had all of the qualifications," she said. "It was very chauvinistic." Instead, she was told consider work as a stewardess. But even that didn't pan out. "I was 5-foot-10 and too tall to be a stewardess," she said. "I was over the height limit for the job." So Matthew went to Washington, D.C., to live with a friend from college and while there worked 11 months as a typist in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House. It was in Washington that she met her husband, Mort. They were married in 1956 and lived in Norwalk before moving to Milton in 1975. Matthew and her husband relocated to Westleigh, a condominium community next to Litchfield Bancorp, in 1995. Mort Matthew died in 2000. They have a son, Kent. Looking back, Matthew said her life has been a rewarding one. "For a girl from a town of 900 in Wisconsin, I think I turned out pretty well," she said. Litchfield Bancorp is proud of its customers’ achievements and is a $200 million mutual savings bank with offices in Litchfield, Lakeville, Oakville, Torrington and Washington. The bank recently launched a campaign called Every Customer Counts, which highlights its dedication to customer service excellence. For more information, go to LitchfieldBancorp.com or call 860-567-9401. __________ *edited for accuracy