Female WWII pilots to receive medals

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

Jean Springer was 22 when she joined a new corps of female pilots needed to help the country in World War II.

Now 89, the Cincinnati woman is in Washington on Wednesday with about 180 other former fliers finally to receive the nation's thanks.

Congress is awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor, to members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a civilian branch of the Army Air Force. Fewer than 300 of the 1,100 survive. Relatives of those who have died or could not attend will also get medals.

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In 1977, after a "huge effort in Congress" and with the help of Sen. Barry Goldwater, who had flown with WASPs during the war, the women were recognized as military personnel and given partial veterans benefits.

"They get to go to VA hospitals, and they get that flag on the coffin," she says. "That's the most important thing to them." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, co-sponsored the bill to honor the women with the medal.

"These women have yet to receive the recognition they deserve," Hutchison says.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-09-wasp-women-pilots_N.htm

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About time. I've read a couple of books on these women as well as Soviet women who actually flew in combat in WWII.

[old mark]

1. Finally. I am amazed how our government spits on the people who serve it so well.

There are still heroes unrecognized from WWII because of race and other "reasons" to whom we all owe a debt.
In fact I recall combat units of black men from WWI who were told after the war that they never saw combat because black soldiers were not in front line positions.
Link:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/369th-infantry/

The link refers to the 369th Infantry, "The Harlem Hellfighters", the first US unit to reach the Rhine in WWI.

mark

[RamboLiberal]

2. Agree - Same thing happened in WWII as well

Same arguments were used against blacks and women serving that are now used against gays. The RW'ers who argue to keep DADT sound like the jerks who argued against the armed forces being intregrated.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Weird considering all the gays that have served honorably. Being gay didn't get you out in WWII. nt

[RamboLiberal]

14. Not from what I've read - they were supposed to be screened out

Interesting article from NYT 1990.

In recent weeks, the Supreme Court refused to consider two constitutional challenges to the military's policy of barring homosexuals from service. The first case involved a male Navy officer, the second a female Army sergeant, both of whom were discharged for displaying ''a propensity to engage in homosexual conduct.'' In neither case did the military present evidence of such conduct; the ''propensity'' alone was considered sufficient grounds for discharge. In the wake of the passions generated by this controversial issue, Allan Berube's historical account of gay soldiers in World War II, ''Coming Out Under Fire,'' provides a timely and valuable perspective.

In theory, during the war, homosexuals were supposed to be screened out at induction centers on the grounds that they would make poor combat soldiers and that their presence would threaten discipline and morale. (The same rationale was applied at the outset against blacks as well.) The screening devices typically used with male inductees included observation of female bodily characteristics and mannerisms, answers to questions regarding occupational choice (men who checked off interior decorator or dancer were immediately suspect) and responses to the question: How do you like girls?

But in practice, Mr. Berube argues, since the pressure to meet unfilled quotas was so great, the examinations were often perfunctory. As a result, hundreds of thousands of homosexuals, perhaps a million or more, made their way into the armed forces, serving in all branches of the military - as tank drivers and clerks, riflemen and bombardiers, messmen and gunnery officers.

''Coming Out Under Fire,'' the product of more than 10 years of research, of digging into archives and interviewing scores of veterans, is the story of how - out of necessity - the military coped with this large influx of homosexuals, and how gay men and women coped with the military. It is the contention of Mr. Berube, a historian of homosexuals in the United States, that the majority of gay male soldiers experienced an unexpected, if somewhat uneasy, acceptance by fellow soldiers so long as they refrained from aggressively pursuing uninterested men. Inspired by the necessity of living together in close quarters, heterosexuals developed ''their own pragmatic ethic of tolerance: 'I won't bother you if you don't bother me.' '' To be sure, some gay soldiers were harassed and abused by straight soldiers, but if a homosexual performed a useful function in his unit, that generally took precedence over the suspicion or even the knowledge that he was gay.

Necessity also played a role in relaxing the policy of discharging homosexual soldiers if they were caught having sex. Whereas in World War I, solely on the discovery of a love letter written by another soldier, a young Navy man was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to 15 years in prison, the more common practice in World War II was to send offenders to sick bay, where psychiatrists and other doctors attempted to distinguish ''experimenters'' from ''confirmed perverts.'' Since the long public trials of the type conducted during World War I were considered too costly in time and energy, a simpler procedure was adopted: the ''experimenters'' were generally returned to duty, while the ''perverts'' were subjected to administrative discharge. ''There was a war on,'' said Ted Allenby, a gay Marine who fought at Iwo Jima. ''Who in the hell is going to worry about this . . .?''

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/08/books/gay-soldiers-they-watched-their-step.html?pagewanted=1

[melm00se]

13. you can lay the blame for that

right at the feet of Woodrow Wilson who specifically ordered that black members of the military not serve in front line units or with whites.

[Captain Hilts]

3. No G.I. Bill, no nothing. Yes! I've read books on these women and the Soviet women also.

Fascinating stuff.

[defendandprotect]

5. These women were also found MORE qualified than males to be astronauts . . .

but it never happened . . .

Never even given EQUAL consideration --

[DeSwiss]

6. Loooooong overdue. K&R!!!

- My hero:

Cornelia Clark Fort (1919 - 1943) was an aviator in the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) who became the first female pilot in American history to die on active duty.

[Plucketeer]

11. I salute them all!

They gave so much and got so little in recompense.

[Scout]

7. many of them were treated like shit by the male pilots and maintenance crews

fucking assholes.

high time they got recognition.

[flyarm]

8. Too bad many of them have passed on..My Aunt being one of them.

But i am glad they will finally get their due and the recongnition they so deserve..it si just so sad many have passed to the other side and never got them while alive.

But it is something their families can hold onto and be so proud of!

These women were fabulous.

And I salute them all!

[RamboLiberal]

15. Here's one from my hometown that flew for the British and then as a WASP

Helen Richey (1909 – 1947) was a pioneering female aviator and the first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline in the United States.

Richey was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Her father, Joseph B. Richey, was superintendent of schools in McKeesport from 1902 to 1935. During her teens, Richey was one of the few girls in McKeesport who wore pants. She learned how to fly a plane at age 20. Her father bought her a plane when she obtained her pilot's license.

In 1932 Richey partnered with another female pilot, Frances Marsalis, to set an endurance record by staying airborne for nearly 10 days, with midair refueling. In 1934 Richey won the premier air race at the first National Air Meet for women in Dayton, Pennsylvania. Also in 1934, Central Airlines, a Greensburg, Pennsylvania–based carrier that eventually became part of United Airlines, hired Richey as a pilot; she eventually was forced to step down from the cockpit by the all-male pilots union.

After leaving Central Airlines, Richey continued to perform at air shows. In 1936 she teamed with Amelia Earhart in a transcontinental air race, the Bendix Trophy Race. Richey and Earhart came in fifth, beating some all-male teams. Later, Richey flew with the British Air Transportation Authority during World War II.

In addition to being the first female commercial airline pilot, Richey also was the first woman sworn in to pilot air mail and one of the first female flight instructors.

Richey died in her apartment in New York City, apparently from a pill overdose. Her death was ruled a suicide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Richey



I would bet the crappy way she was treated though she could outfly many men was a factor in her suicide.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

19. crappy treatment....I agree.....

ugh...ok, I'm in one of those moods where I'm about to rant.

I'll just go do something else for awhile...feeling too pissed off....wonder if these women's stories of heroism will ever make it to the public eye, like the tide of excellent Black History Month programming in February? They'd make for excellent programs and films...there are SO many stories of female heroism, but they never seem to capture much notice.

Women really are harmed and held back by sexism, yet it's the discrimination that must not be named. Lasting effects must not be mentioned, always seems to me.

[kimi]

22. How sad for her

She looks so proud and happy in her photo.

[Demoiselle]

9. I heard one of these vets interviewed on NPR a few days ago.

She said one of the hardest things (other than being tossed away like garbage at the end of the war...my words, not hers) was hearing the Air Force announce that it was accepting females into its flying programs and that they would be "the first women to fly in the Air Force." She choked up audibly when she said it.
I am so GLAD these women have finally gotten some recognition.
Way way way overdue.

[femrap]

10. Recognition after death....

yippee. It's embarrassing that it has taken this long.

No wonder there is no ERA.

[Number9Dream]

12. B-17 combat pilot spoke respectfully of WASP

I remember my father, a B-17 combat pilot, speaking respectfully about the women pilots during WWII. He felt they should have received much more recognition for their service. I'm glad they're finally receiving it.

[RamboLiberal]

16. Love these pictures

Betty Hall Stohfus


June Bent of Westboro, Mass., holds a portrait of fellow pilot and friend Doris Duncan Muise, deceased, who also was also a pilot, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday.

:patriot:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

20. dammit, I'm getting teary eyed again

:patriot:

:loveya:

[RamboLiberal]

17. As the Star Spangled Banner Played One Stood up from her wheelchair

They flew planes during World War II but weren't considered "real" military pilots. No flags were draped over their coffins when they died on duty. And when their service ended, they had to pay their own bus fare home.

These aviators — all women — got long-overdue recognition on Wednesday. They received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress, in a ceremony on Capitol Hill.

About 200 women who served as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, were on hand to receive the award. Now mostly in their late 80s and early 90s, some came in wheelchairs, many sported dark blue uniforms, and one, June Bent of Westboro, Mass., clutched a framed photograph of a comrade who had died.

As a military band played "The Star-Spangled Banner," one of the women who had been sitting in a wheelchair stood up and saluted through the entire song as a relative gently supported her back.

"Women Airforce Service Pilots, we are all your daughters; you taught us how to fly," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She said the pilots went unrecognized for too long, even though their service blazed a trail for other women in the U.S. military.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35800368/ns/us_news-military/

[Vidar]

18. Better late than never. They certainly earned the honor.

[Quantess]

21. Great.

[HarpboyAK]

23. I know one of these women

She was a test pilot in Mississipi. A truly gracious Southern lady, one of the few white Missisipians who marched with Dr. King in the 60s. And I might add, a very loyal Democrat.

Kudos to Eleanor Campbell and all her fellow WASPs.