Women Airforce Service Pilots and their fight for veteran status
Published Nov. 11, 2021
By Stephen Arionus, PhD
Air Force Personnel Center
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AFNS) --
On the evening of August 23, 1943, a pilot named Mabel Rawlinson died in a fiery crash in the North Carolina swamplands near Fort Davis. Unbeknownst to her, she was doing night exercises in an aircraft that another pilot previously flagged for engine troubles. In a separate incident, when a woman pilot trainee died in a crash, her classmates had to send around a collection to return her body to her family because the government would not foot the bill for the expense. And on October 2, 1944, in Victorville, California, another plane crashed killing all on board. In that incident, all but one crew member received a funeral with full military honors. That last crew member and her family received nothing. Each of the pilots who gave their lives in service to their nation were Women Airforce Service Pilots; however, due to a bureaucratic technicality, the federal government classified all WASPs as civilian employees rather than military during World War II. This was never meant to be a permanent status. At the time, many believed WASPs would eventually be militarized like other all-women auxiliary units. “Civil service was a convenient expedient to get the program started,” stated retired Air Force Col. Bruce Arnold, the son of Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold. The United States just needed pilots. Gen. Hap Arnold worked on the principle of “get it done now and worry about the details later,” according to his son. It would take more than 30 years and an act of Congress before WASPs would receive the recognition of their efforts in WWII, and the status as military veterans.
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2838960/women-airforce-service-pilots-and-their-fight-for-veteran-status/
