By Martha Lockwood, Air Force News Service / Published March
13, 2015
FORT MEADE, Md. (AFNS) -- The Air Force's acceptance of
women into the force dates back to long before the first "Women's History
Week" celebration in 1978.
In 1942, the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) took the unheard-of
step of forming and employing two women's aviation units. That same year, a
unit of flight nurses who had not yet quite finished their training, were sent
into North Africa on Christmas Day following the Allied invasion in November of
that year.
And the history of women--civilian and military--was forever
changed.
WASPS, WAFS and a Willingness to Serve
Originally, the idea of using women pilots was first
suggested in 1930, but was considered "unfeasible," according to
information maintained at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Then, in mid-1942, an increased need for World War II combat
pilots, favored the use of experienced women pilots to fly aircraft on
non-combat missions.
Two women's aviation units--The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying
Squadron (WAFS--with a capital S) and the Women's Airforce Service Pilots
(WASPs) were formed to ease this need. More than 1,000 women participated in
these programs as civilians attached to the USAAC, flying 60 million miles of
non-combat military missions.
These two units were merged into a single group, the Women
Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program in August 1943, and broke ground for
U.S. Air Force female pilots who would follow in their footsteps decades later.
Of the more than 25,000 women who applied for pilot training
under the WASP program, 1,830 were accepted, 1,074 were graduated, and 916 (including
16 former WAFS) remained when the program was disbanded in December 1944. WASP
assignments were diverse--as flight training instructors, glider tow pilots,
towing targets for air-to-air and anti-aircraft gunnery practice, engineering
test flying, ferrying aircraft, and other duties.
Although WASPs had the privileges of officers, they were
never formally adopted into the USAAC. In November 1977--33 years after the
WASPs program was disbanded--President Carter signed a bill granting World War
II veterans' status to former WASPs.
Winged Angels
It was a slightly different story for flight nurses who were
members of the military from the beginning. As it was with so many advances and
innovations resulting from World War II, the USAAC radically changed military
medical care, and the development of air evacuation and the training of flight
nurses were advanced to meet this need.
After the invasion of North Africa in November 1942, the
need for flight nurses exceeded the supply, and women who had not yet finished
their training were called into action and sent to North Africa on Christmas
Day. Finally, in February 1943, the first class of Army Nurse Corps flight
nurses graduated.
Unlike their stateside-stationed counterparts in the WASPs,
flight nurses (nicknamed "Winged Angels") in the Army Nurse Corps
served in combat. They were especially vulnerable to enemy attacks because
aircraft used for evacuation could not display their non-combat status.
These same aircraft were also used to transport military
supplies. In anticipation and preparation for almost any emergency, flight
nurses were required to learn crash procedures, receive survival training, and
know the effects of high altitude on a vast array of pathologies.
Of the nearly 1.2 million patients air evacuated throughout
the war, only 46 died en route. About 500 USAAC nurses (only 17 died in combat)
served as members of 31 medical air evacuation transport squadrons throughout
the world.
When President Harry Truman signed The National Security Act
of 1947, creating the Department of Defense, the U. S. Air Force became a
separate military service. At the time, a number of Women's Army Corps (WACs)
members continued serving in the Army but performed Air Force duties.
The following year, some WACs chose to transfer to the
Women's Air Force (WAFs--with a lower case s) when it finally became possible
to do so.
Originally, the WAFs were limited to 4,000 enlisted women
and 300 female officers, all of whom were encouraged to fill a variety of
ground duty roles--mostly clerical and medical--but were not to be trained as
pilots, even though the USAAC had graduated the first class of female pilots in
April 1943, during wartime.
In 1976, when women were accepted into the Air Force on an
equal basis with men, the WAF program ended, but not before many milestones
were achieved and marked along the way in preparation for today's Air Force
woman.
The WAFs in Evolution
The first WAF recruit was Sgt. Esther Blake who enlisted on
July 8, 1948, in the first minute of the first day that regular Air Force duty
was authorized for women. She had been a WAC, and she transferred in from Fort
McPherson, Ga.
The first recruits reported to Lackland Air Force Base,
Texas, in 1948. When basic training was desegregated in the Air Force the
following year, many African-American women recruits joined, even though the
integration of quarters and mess had not yet been achieved.
At first, WAFs wore men's uniforms with neckties. It was
"a look" that didn't last long, and winter uniforms for WAFs were
modeled after flight attendants' uniforms, using the same material as the men's
winter uniforms.
The necktie was abandoned early on, and was replaced with
tabs on the collar. The summer uniform--a two-piece dress made of cotton-cord
seersucker--didn't fare as well. Ill-fitting, it required frequent ironing. It
would be years before a suitable women's uniform would be achieved.
Milestones Along the Way
In its 10-year lifespan, from 1951 to 1961, the 543rd Air
Force Band (WAF) was served by 235 women musicians, with approximately 50
members at any one time. This band, the WAF Band as it was known, along with
the all-male Air Force Band, served as ambassadors of the Air Force
simultaneously.
The WAF band marched in both of President Eisenhower's
inaugural parades, and they played for President Kennedy's inauguration, among
other concert engagements throughout the nation. The band was deactivated in
1961. Some say that it was a victim of its own success.
It was during this same time period--1956--that a WAF
section was introduced into the college-level Reserve Officers' Training Corps
(ROTC) program, and by 1959 four universities were running ROTC WAF sections.
By 1970, they had achieved a national presence.
Concurrent with the expansion of the ROTC women's cadet
program, Congress passed Public Law 90-130 in 1967, lifting grade restrictions
and strength limitations on women in the military.
And with the end of Selective Service (the
"draft") in 1973, recruiting practices changed. Shortly
afterwards--1976--the separate status of WAF was abolished, and women entered
pilot training as military personnel for the first time. (The WASPS and WAFS of
World War II had come in to service as civilians with pilots' licenses.) Our
country's bicentennial year also saw women entering the service academies,
which had not been opened to them prior to President Ford's administration.
By 1993, women were receiving fighter pilot training, and
Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms (then Maj. Helms), member of the first class of the U.
S. Air Force Academy to graduate women, was also the first American military
woman in space as part of the Space Shuttle Endeavor team.
Coming, full circle, the final chapter for the WAFS and
WASPS of World War II was achieved in 1977, when President Jimmy Carter awarded
them full status as veterans, complete with benefits. A fitting epilogue was
added in 2010 with the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal. Today, there
are approximately 300 of the original women air force pilots still living.
By the Numbers
The milestones cited above are just that--the highlights of
women in service to their country. Each day, women in the Air Force distinguish
themselves and honor those who have gone before them by doing the jobs that
matter to us all--performing in professional, administrative, technical and
clerical positions.
Women make up 19 percent of all Air Force military personnel
and 30.5 percent of all civilian personnel. Of the female officers, 55 percent
of the female officers are line officers, and 45 percent are non-line. Of the
328,423 active duty personnel, 62,316 are women, with 712 female pilots, 259
navigators and 183 air battle managers.
Women's History Month
Today, Women's History Month awareness for all the armed
services is initiated by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute
headquartered at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.. Among the tools and initiatives
for observing this month-long celebration of the role women have played
throughout history, the Institute is making available a free download of this
year's Women's National History Project poster, "Women's
Education--Women's Empowerment."
Empowerment of women has strengthened the services. Starting
with the WASPS and WAFS of World War II, through the WAFs of the '50s and '60s,
through the acceptance and promotion of women at the service academies, each
generation of women and their evolved sense of service to their country, has
prepared the future for generations of women seeking unlimited opportunity.
(Martha Lockwood is the chief of Air Force Information
Products, Defense Media Activity)
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