On an extraordinary day in March of 2010, I stood before the steps of the U.S. Capitol admiring the majestic beauty of its immediately familiar white dome rising over 285 feet above the Capitol building’s rotunda. Perhaps the nation’s most recognizable and identifiable American landmark, the prominent dome that overlooks the city of Washington D.C. commands a westward view across the Capitol Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial just two miles away.
The Capitol, with its impressive dome, is an icon of the American people. Built high on a hill as a symbol of democracy, it is visible from nearly every spot of the city. Its inspiring form soars and rises above the horizon, and the limitless sky is its backdrop.
What brought me to that extraordinary day was the (until then) not-so-visible yet soaring and inspirational legacy of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of WWII who on that day received the Congressional Gold Medal (CGM) nearly seven decades after their service to our country during World War II. I was there to accept the CGM on behalf of WASP, Lt. Col. Marjorie M. Gray, who had passed away in 2008.
The CGM is the oldest and highest civilian award in the United States, bestowed by the United States Congress. It is the highest expression of national appreciation awarded to individuals or groups that have significantly impacted American history and culture.
The WASP were the first women in history to fly American military aircraft during the Second World War. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered into a war on two fronts in Europe and the Pacific Theater of Operations. In this time of national emergency, civilian women pilots volunteered and were recruited as a detachment of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) to learn how to fly military aircraft ‘the Army way’ so that they could fill vital flying roles on the U.S. homefront, thus releasing male pilots who were desperately needed for overseas combat duty.
Between 1942 and 1944, 1,102 recruits from the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) served as WASP. They were stationed at 120 Army air bases across the U.S.A. They flew in every type of military aircraft in the USAAF’s arsenal and in every capacity except combat. Their assignments included ferrying, test and instructor piloting, towing targets for air-to-air and ground-to-air practice, transporting personnel and cargo, simulated strafing, smoke laying, night tracking, flying drones, and more.
Over the course of the program’s existence, the WASP flew over 60 million miles. Thirty-eight women lost their lives as trainees and on operational duty. As civilians, with the promise to militarize them at a later date, the 38 women who died while serving their country were not eligible for military benefits, their burials were at the expense of their families, and no gold stars were allowed in the windows of their family home, nor an American flag to drape over their coffins.
In 1944, the promised bill to militarize the WASP failed in Congress by 19 votes and in December of that year they were unceremoniously disbanded and sent home at their own expense. Their military records were sealed and stamped as classified and filed away in government archives, unavailable to historians and scholars who wrote the history of WWII.
In 1977, 33 years after disbandment, Congress finally voted to give the WASP the veteran status that they so richly deserved. The WASP maintained a close-knit community forged by their shared experiences serving their country during the war. As part of their desire to educate the American public about their untold history, WASP assisted ‘Wings Across America’, an organization dedicated to educating the public about the accomplishments of these WWII veterans. This led to a Bill to Award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, passed in 2009 by both chambers of Congress and signed into law S.614 by President Obama on July 1 of that year.
On March 10, 2010, surviving WASP and families of those deceased and the 38 women who died in the service were honored at the 111th Congress Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in honor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots; each was presented with the Medal.
The story of how I arrived to that day to accept the late Lt. Col. Marjorie Gray’s CGM posthumously is a multi-layered narrative, too lengthy to write here, but suffice it to say, it was an incredible honor to take part in helping to make that extraordinary day a reality. This one is for the WASP of WWII and their soaring and most inspirational legacy. Fair skies and happy landings.
