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WWII female pilots getting Cong. Gold Medal

Deanie Bishop Parrish wanted to fly, and she wanted to serve her country.

As World War II raged, she and hundreds of other women found an opportunity to do both.

The Army Air Forces allowed them to take domestic military flying jobs that freed up male pilots to serve overseas, but their service was unappreciated and was kept secret for decades. Now, after years of lobbying, the Women Airforce Service Pilots will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on March 10.

“It’s been a long road,” said Parrish, 87, who joined the service in 1944. “It’s only taken them 65 years.”

In the early 1940s, a group of female pilots led by Jacqueline Cochran began to aggressively lobby the Army brass to give them a chance to fly.

Although initially reluctant, Army Air Corps Chief Lt. Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold saw the need for more pilots to support the war effort and authorized the formation of the Women Airforce Service Pilots in 1942. The women still weren’t allowed to fly combat missions overseas. They were confined to the U.S., flying missions previously done by men so those men could go off to war.

The female pilots ferried aircraft between U.S. bases, test-flew planes after maintenance and drew the hazardous duty of pulling targets for training men in anti-aircraft fire.

“That was a little scary,” Parrish recalled with a laugh. “Sometimes those gunners weren’t so accurate.”

At Arnold’s request, the women even flew the B-26 bomber — nicknamed the “Widowmaker” — to convince male service members that it was safe.

“They flew every kind of aircraft the military had,” said retired Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, president of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation. “This was an opportunity to fly types of aircraft they would never have an opportunity to fly. It was exciting to them.”

Parrish said she loved flying, but patriotism was her motivation.

“For me, it was the one thing I felt I could do best to help my country,” she said. “That’s why I went in.”

The government would not pay the women’s way to their training sessions at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, or for their bodies to be transported if they were killed in the line of duty. Thirty-eight gave their lives for their country.

As word spread of the women’s duties, a movement grew in the U.S. to remove them from service. In March 1944, Arnold, by then a champion of the female pilots, requested legislation to allow them to become full military service members. It was the only request of Arnold’s that Congress ever rejected. In December 1944, the Women Airforce Service Pilots was disbanded. They received no military benefits or honors, and their records were sealed and classified.

In the 1970s, as the military started to officially introduce female pilots and said they were the first women in history to fly military aircraft, the women aviators of World War II decided it was time to get the credit they deserved. With the help of Arnold’s son, Col. Bruce Arnold, and Sen. Barry Goldwater, they convinced Congress to recognize members of their group as veterans.

Still, few people knew the story. Even Parrish’s daughter, Nancy, wasn’t aware of what her mother had done until the 1990s, when she found an old scrapbook and started to ask questions. Shortly after that, the two women set out on a quest to get surviving members of the service to tell their stories.

They interviewed 110 women in 19 states. Their effort resulted in a museum exhibit called “Fly Girls of World War II,” currently on display at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The exhibit directly helped the Congressional Gold Medal effort. At the Fly Girls opening ceremony in November 2008, the Parrishes met Maj. Nicole Malachowski, the first woman to fly with the Thunderbirds air demonstration squadron.

A White House Fellow at the time, Malachowski used her connections to get a bill on the floor of the House and Senate. It passed, and on July 1, 2009, President Obama signed it into law. Three of the original woman pilots and five current female Air Force pilots were there.

Nearly 300 of the original 1,102 woman pilots are still alive, and about 130 are expected to attend the March 10 medal ceremony, according to Marilla Cushman of the women’s memorial foundation.