Women Aviators Finally Fill Cockpits of Military Aircraft
Otis Willie
(EXCERPT) By Rudi Williams American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 19, 2003 -- Since Wilbur and Orville Wright took
flight on Dec. 17, 1903, women have made significant contributions to
aviation in the United States and around the world.
However, women didn't start flying until 1908 and nearly all were
restricted to general aviation, such as private planes or support
service jobs. They've now gained full access to military and
commercial cockpits.
In 1943, the first group of young women pilots became pioneers,
heroines and role models as members of the Women's Airforce Service
Pilots, or WASPs. The first women trained to fly American military
aircraft, they paved the way for today's Air Force women, who now
comprise 19 percent of the force and work in 99 percent of all Air
Force career fields.
WASPs were not considered military pilots until 1977, when Congress
declared that they were indeed veterans of World War II. Women began
entering Air Force pilot training in 1976 and fighter pilot training
in 1993.
So it took more than 30 years to get women back into the cockpit after
World War II and another 17 years for them to fly combat missions.
Ironically, even though 1,074 WASPs flew more than 60 million miles
across the nation in every type of plane the Army Air Forces owned
during World War II, they were still not called the first military
women pilots. Perhaps that's because WASPs only flew missions such as
ferrying, towing targets in gunnery schools for ground and aerial
gunners, instructing and aerial mapping.
Consequently, women who were trained to fly helicopters and fixed-wing
aircraft supporting troops and, now, combat aircraft, are considered
military pilots.
The distinction of being the Army's first female military pilot goes
to 2nd Lt. Sally D. Woolfolk, who received her wings to fly UH-1 Huey
helicopters on June 4, 1974.
Woolfolk entered the Army in January 1973, a month after receiving a
master's degree in history from Kansas State College of Pittsburg,
Kan. She attended an 11-week orientation course for women officers at
Fort McClellan, Ala., and then went to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., for the
Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course.
Meanwhile, the Army opened its flight training program to women. She
applied and was accepted.
After pinning on her wings, she was asked if she would recommend
flight school for other women, Woolfolk said, "I definitely encourage
women to apply for it, if they are interested in doing something out
of the ordinary.
"Of course, one of the main objections to such training has been the
opinion held by many that women cannot be used tactically by the
service," she said in 1974. "Well, I don't want to fight wars. But I
joined the Army, and if they feel that I should go, I will go."
The late Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Allen Rainey became the Navy's first woman
pilot when she earned her gold wings on Feb. 22, 1974. A graduate of
the Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., she was
commissioned in December 1970. She followed in the footsteps of her
Marine Corps aviator brother, Bill Allen, by applying for U.S. Naval
Flight Training School.
Married to John C. Rainey, whom she met in flight training, she became
pregnant with her first daughter and resigned her commission in
November 1977. She returned to active duty in the Naval Reserve and
while pregnant with her second daughter, qualified to fly the C-118
transport.
Recalled to active duty in 1981 as a flight instructor flying the
T-34C Mentor, she was killed in a crash on July 13, 1982, while
practicing touch-and-go landings at Middleton Field near Evergreen,
Ala. She was 34.
The Navy's first female F-14 Tomcat combat pilot, Lt. Kara Spears
Hultgreen, was the first female pilot killed after the Department of
Defense risk rule was rescinded. She was killed on Oct. 25, 1994, at
age 29 when the left engine of her F-14 stalled as she attempted to
land on the USS Abraham Lincoln about 50 miles off the coast of San
Diego.
The pioneer female fighter pilot was buried with full military honors
in Section 60 of Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery. In March 1999, the
Texas State Senate paid tribute to Hultgreen's life and service to her
country during National Women's History Month and Texas Women
Veteran's Day.
Marine Corps Maj. Sarah M. Deal made history in April 1995 when she
became the first female pilot in Marine Corps history.
A graduate of Kent State University's aerospace flight technology
program, Deal was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps
in 1991. At the time, there was a ban on women in combat units, so,
instead of applying for flight school, she attended air traffic
control school.
Still hankering to fly, Deal continued to fly privately and took the
aptitude test for Marine flight school, just in case the ban was
lifted. Her chance came when the secretary of defense lifted the ban
on women serving as pilots of combat aircraft in 1993.
She became the first woman selected to attend flight school in
Pensacola, Fla. Deal flies the military's largest helicopter, the
CH-53E Super Stallion, to support and supply ground troops.
The aviation pioneer was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame
in 1999.
She's currently serving as adjutant for the commanding officer of the
Marine Aircraft Group 16 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San
Diego.
Deal was featured in "Gender Wars," a Learning Channel television
documentary. She also was featured on "Flight Line," which aired on
the Discovery Channel and has received several awards, including the
Kent State University Young Alumni Special Achievement Award and
recognition as one of "350 Women Who Changed the World, 1976-1996," in
Working Woman magazine.
Capt. Connie Engle, an Air Force nurse turned pilot, is touted in some
circles as the Air Force's first woman pilot, but that's a matter of
conjecture. She graduated in a class of 10 women pilots on Sept. 2,
1977, at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz. Engle, however, does hold some
firsts among Air Force women pilots: She was the first to solo in the
T-41 Mescalero and T-37 Tweet aircraft and was also the first woman to
lead a two-ship formation.
The other women in Class 77-08 were: Capts. Kathy La Sauce, Mary
Donahue, Susan Rogers and Christine Schott; 1st Lts. Sandra Scott and
Victoria Crawford; and 2nd Lts. Mary Livingston, Carol Scherer and
Kathleen Rambo.
In 1977, women were allowed into undergraduate navigator training at
Mather Air Force Base, Calif.
In 1991, Congress lifted the ban on women flying in combat aircraft.
By 1994, the first female Air Force pilot graduated from F-15E Strike
Eagle combat crew training at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.
Today, women can enroll in Air Force pilot or navigator training and
learn to operate any aircraft in the inventory.
In January 1978, the Air National Guard claimed its first female pilot
when 2nd Lt. Marilyn Koon of Arizona's 161st Air Refueling Group
pinned on her silver wings.
There isn't much information about the Coast Guard's first woman
aviator, except that her name is Janna Lambine and she graduated from
naval aviation training at NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Fla., on March
4, 1977.
Lambine's first assignment was as a helicopter pilot at Air Station
Astoria, Ore., where she flew search and rescue missions, as well as
pollution and fisheries surveillance.
Web sites that contain more information about women in aviation
include www.womenmilitaryaviators.org [
http://www.womenmilitaryaviators.org, www.wiai.org [
http://www.wiai.org and www.ninety-nines.org [
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Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com