DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- (Editor’s note: This is part one in a series about the aircraft in the Dyess’ Linear Air Park, written in the voice of the aircraft. This story was written by Staff Sgt Joel Mease, 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs. For more information about the air park or for the monthly walking tour of the park, contact Public Affairs at 325-696-4820.)
Howdy, partner! Don’t be shy now, come in closer ‘cause I got a story to tell you!
Now, I know it’s hotter than a tornado whippin’ around the grounds of a West Texas rodeo, but I see y’all running by me or trying to catch those fan-dangled electric yellow mice with your eyes glued on those mobile rotary devices you youngsters use these days – but darn it - the ladies who flew me just a little over seven decades ago were some of the toughest, smartest, bravest gals who ever flew for our Air Force. And they deserve just a moment of your time.
Now my fellow sisters’ story starts an hour west of here in Avenger Field, in the small town of Sweetwater, which has a personality bigger than Dallas!
In September 1942, our nation needed pilots and a lot of them. It had been nine months since the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, the commanding general of the Army Air Forces, saw there was a dangerous shortage of pilots needed to support the war effort. Now, at the time, many men might have scoffed at the idea of a woman controlling the 600 horsepower engine I carry, all while zipping down the Texas skyline at a couple hundred miles an hour. However, I’d like to think the general knew these women could not only handle the job, but would be pioneers for the tens of thousands of women who followed in their footsteps.
So, the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots organization was born soon after, one day after our nation’s birthday in 1943.
More than 25,000 ladies would apply in one of the toughest jobs to get. All told, just more than 1,800 were accepted and began their basic training in the West Texas sun at Avenger Field. Just more than half would make the cut and earn their pilot wings.
Now these ladies didn’t want any special treatment during their training. They lived in barracks – six per bay – sharing one latrine, one sink and, if you can imagine the mornings, one shower! You really had to want to be here, because the government also had these ladies pay for their dress uniforms and even their own room and board. The only thing issued to them was a pair of men’s coveralls. While they weren’t the most fashionable thing to wear, my fellow sisters made due and nicknamed those oversized pajamas “zoot suits.”
What makes this Texas gal so proud is while many of these women arrived having only flown simplistic biplanes with open cockpits, they got to be trained by me, the baddest and toughest trainer of them all. Now, I don’t like to brag, but I’d like to think I was a mother to these young ladies training them for some of the toughest challenges they would face.
During the two years the WASP program was put in place, these Airmen delivered more than 12,000 aircraft ferrying them from the factory to air bases or strategic points of embankment. They also flew domestic air duties, flying all over the country to support the War Department.
The only disappointing thing out of all this was that after Congress disbanded these brave women two years after its creation, they prohibited them from being called veterans, and their records were classified and sealed. Now you can insult a lady, but don’t think we won’t say anything back! These proud veteran Airmen fought to have their story told, and in 1977, Congress passed a law granting them their deserved veteran status, and better yet, the Air Force graduated its first female pilot class that year. It took 33 years, but these proud women showed the world that not only were they critical to the Allies beating back the Axis of Evil but they were trailblazers for other women everywhere. Now if there’s anything I’ve learned in my 70-some years on this earth, any job a man can do, a woman can, too – heck, maybe even better!
So next time you mosey by my little spot on the airpark, maybe bring a tall glass of sweet tea to keep you cool and ponder about how amazing your Air Force is now after a few tough gals took on a so-called “man’s job” and revolutionized airpower forever.