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From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 03.11.10 edition.

Medal Congress honors WWII
women pilot

By Marshall Smith, Staff Reporter

Idyllwild locals Winifred (Winnie) Wood, now deceased, and longtime friend Dorothy (Dot) Swain Lewis, 94, received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow, at a ceremony at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 10. Dot attended with her son, Albert (Chig) Lewis. Former U.S. Attorney General and Wood’s niece, Janet Reno, represented Wood at the ceremony.

Wood and Swain were WASPs, Women Airforce Service Pilots, in World War II, who ferried all manner of military aircraft within the U.S., towed targets for gunnery practice, and otherwise freed up male pilots for combat duty. From 1942, with the creation of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) to the December 1944 disbanding of the successor WASPs, over 1,000 WASP pilots transported 12,650 aircraft from swift fighter planes to B-26 heavy bombers. Thirty-eight WASPs lost their lives in service — 11 in training and 27 in active duty.

Wood recounted in her book, “We Were WASPS,” the pure joy of the experience. “Towing targets was only part of our work. One phase that was highly popular with the pilots was the strafe mission. Troops would be camped out in the [U.S. Southwest] desert, camouflaged elaborately. We would fly over and spot them. Peeling off, we’d dive down on emplacements, trucks, chow lines or anything visible. The men would track us with guns, simulating actual combat conditions. One over-anxious WASP spotted a jeep with two soldiers careening down the road one bright morning. She made a pass and nothing happened. The soldiers were so used to this treatment that they didn’t even look up. But the [WASP] pilot, having been dragged out of a warm bed at five o’clock, swore it would be a success. The next pass was a lulu. The soldiers fell out of the jeep and ran. The jeep continued merrily down the road until brought up short against an embankment. Pulling up in a steep chandelle [a maneuver] she gave them time to climb back in the jeep and dove on them again. From the shelter of the ditch where they hastily retired the soldiers called up unheard curses on the strafer while the jeep went scooting down the road once more.” Longtime friend and 20-year roommate in the later Idyllwild years, Lewis, an accomplished artist, illustrated Wood’s book.

Wood was part of the class of 43-7 (the seventh scheduled class in 1943) at Avenger Field in Sweetwater Texas. As part of being accepted into the program, each WASP came into the program with a commercial pilot’s rating and, on average, 1,400 flying hours. They received 30 days of orientation to learn Army paperwork and to fly by military regulations.

Lewis trained pilots before the U.S. entered the war — first male, then after hostilities commenced, female. Tired of training only, Lewis became part of WASP training class 44-7 and served, as did Wood, until the WASP program was disbanded in December 1944. Both Wood and Lewis flew every military plane of the time, from fighters to B-26 bombers.

Contacted by phone in Virginia, Lewis, now 94, said she is looking forward to the medal ceremony. “I think it’s a wonderful thing,” she said. “I don’t know that we deserved it. We just loved to fly and I liked to help others learn to fly. It will be good to see other friends at this ceremony.”

Recruited by newspaper ads and public service announcements, 25,000 women answered the WASP call. Of more than 1,800 selected for training, 1,102 graduated. At no time were WASPs “in” the military. They were always civilians, until in 1977, the G.I. Bill Improvement Act of 1977, granted the WASP corps full military status for their service. In 1984, each WASP received the World War II Victory Medal and for those that served longer than a year, including Wood, they also received the American Theater Ribbon/American Campaign Medal. In July 2009, President Obama signed legislation authorizing the Congressional Medal award. Wood, who died in August 2009, knew of the medal authorization but, according to niece Nora Denslow, was not planning to attend. She thought she would not be up to the trip. But Wood’s enthusiasm for her WASP days never waned, said Denslow. “How wonderful it was to fly those planes,” Denslow remembers her aunt saying on more than one occasion.

Wood and Lewis join George Washington, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Thomas Edison, the Tuskegee Airmen, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama, among others, as Congressional Gold Medal recipients.

Marshall Smith can be reached at marshall@towncrier.com.

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