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W.W. II Pilots Relive Glory (Great Story! Especially from Mercury News)
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 6/1/06 | Renee Koury

Posted on 06/02/2006 10:02:10 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

For Wednesday's flight from Livermore to Moffett Field, Eleanor Wortz wore the same uniform and silver wings she wore as a 23-year-old member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

They defied convention -- and defied gravity -- six decades ago when they became the first women in history to fly for the U.S. military as Women Airforce Service Pilots.

On Wednesday, three of the World War II aviation pioneers, now in their 80s and living in the Bay Area, made a short return flight.

Eleanor Wortz of Los Altos, Jean McFarland Koehler of Sunnyvale and Maggie Gee of Berkeley flew through crystal blue skies from Livermore to Moffett Field in a restored B-24 Liberator, like the ones they piloted as the unconventional flying ladies of World War II.

"It felt pretty good," said Wortz, 84, who emerged beaming from the plane's tiny hatch after the 23-minute hop. "It's been so long . . . I'd forgotten how it is."

Wortz was wearing the original skirted dress uniform with silver wings she wore as a 23-year-old flier. [WOW] She lamented that at 84, she could no longer pilot the plane herself on Wednesday, just ride in the flight deck.

"Flying is what I love to do and I couldn't," she said. "But it made you remember. I had two years of flying in the Air Force and it was a good life." Wortz was joined on the B-24 "Witchcraft" by her fellow WASP veterans Koehler, 87, and Gee, 82.

All three professed a love of flying as young girls during an era when few women entered a cockpit. It was only the exigencies of World War II, when pilots were growing scarce, that turned the military to women for help.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: wasp
Our under-appreciated Grandmas from WWII.

For Wednesday's flight from Livermore to Moffett Field, Eleanor Wortz wore the same uniform and silver wings she wore as a 23-year-old member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

1 posted on 06/02/2006 10:02:13 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

She looks cute and tough as nails.


2 posted on 06/02/2006 10:05:27 PM PDT by isthisnickcool (What is it about "illegal" you don't understand?)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

God Bless them all.


3 posted on 06/02/2006 10:13:57 PM PDT by investigateworld (Abortion stops a beating heart)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
great story ! Thanks! I studied and sent all the links to my dear old dad , who is a 9th Air Force veteran and flew in B-26's and later A-26's with the 386th Bomb Group in WW2.
He's 92 and going strong , he will love the stories contained in these links. Thanks again!
4 posted on 06/02/2006 10:24:20 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
``When I reported for duty the first day, the officer said, `Yeah, we need help, but we don't need women,' '' Koehler recalled. ``All I could say was, `Yes sir!' What I wanted to say was entirely different than that.''

HA! Sounds like something my grandma would say... :)

5 posted on 06/02/2006 10:59:00 PM PDT by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Former WASP pilots Maggie Gee, Jean McFarland Koehler and Eleanor Wortz stand next to a restored B-24 Liberator.

6 posted on 06/02/2006 11:23:49 PM PDT by rawhide
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To: rawhide

Eleanor Wortz, flanked by her sister, Jean Barrick, and Barrick's husband, retired Col. Mac Barrick, is escorted away from the plane after her adventure aboard the restored B-24.

7 posted on 06/02/2006 11:25:05 PM PDT by rawhide
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Thanks to Eleanor Wortz, there are still plenty WASPs in the air!


(that's my kid! And wasp would be a perfect description of her!)
8 posted on 06/02/2006 11:32:38 PM PDT by Spruce (Keep your mitts off my wallet)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

A remarkable airplane. And some remarkable ladies to pilot them.
9 posted on 06/02/2006 11:46:09 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life)
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To: Liberty Valance

The Liberator is one of the most beautiful aircraft ever produced. I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that there were more Liberators made than any other aircraft. Ever.


10 posted on 06/03/2006 12:18:56 AM PDT by Spruce (Keep your mitts off my wallet)
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To: Spruce
Yes, you are correct. More than 16,000 were built. The B-24 could fly higher, faster and farther than a B-17 and could carry more bomb load.

I read a while back only six complete B-24 aircraft remain worldwide. Many of them were built at Ford's Willow Run plant near Detroit, Michigan. Near the end of World War II, a brand new B-24 was rolling out the door of the Willow Run plant every 56 minutes.

My father was a B-24 pilot with the 90th Bomb Group of the Fifth Air Force in the South Pacific.

The B-24 was a physically demanding aircraft to fly. Landing it often required the physical strength of both pilot and co-pilot. The B-24 carried a crew of ten into combat.

11 posted on 06/03/2006 12:56:56 AM PDT by NoControllingLegalAuthority
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
WASP Bump!


12 posted on 06/03/2006 1:05:13 AM PDT by Bender2 (Gad! The inmates have control... And I'm trying to quit smoking!)
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To: ShadowDancer

interesting...


13 posted on 06/03/2006 4:00:45 AM PDT by dakine
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Neat. I was just helping a friend the other day find some links like this for her father, who flew B-24s during WWII. Even though the B-24 outperformed the B-17 in pretty much every category, I still have to admit my fondness for the Flying Fortress. It has a grace and beauty that is hard to explain, but you just know from looking at it that that is how an airplane is supposed to look.


14 posted on 06/03/2006 4:23:40 AM PDT by tarawa
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To: Spruce

Cool! What does she fly?


15 posted on 06/03/2006 5:33:48 AM PDT by SIDENET (I like liberals...they taste like CHICKEN.)
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To: Liberty Valance
That plane and their B17 will be in Humboldt County soon. The first time they came here they flew over my house ( Eureka Ca) at about 500 feet. I heard them and recognized the sound immediately. Once you hear them you never forget...
16 posted on 06/03/2006 6:05:22 AM PDT by tubebender (Tagline...I don't need no stinking tagline...)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
I wonder why Kay Chaffee wasn't there. She was a customer of ours before she moved to Oregon last year...
17 posted on 06/03/2006 6:11:37 AM PDT by tubebender (Tagline...I don't need no stinking tagline...)
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To: tarawa
It has a grace and beauty that is hard to explain, but you just know from looking at it that that is how an airplane is supposed to look.

Even more so for the B-29.


18 posted on 06/03/2006 6:12:36 AM PDT by reg45
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To: Spruce
I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that there were more Liberators made than any other aircraft. Ever.

I think it was the most-produced US warplane.

I recall reading that Germany made over 30,000 Me109's and Russia made over 33,000 Il-2's. But I could be wrong.

19 posted on 06/03/2006 7:39:23 AM PDT by cayuga (A 9mm is a .45 set to Stun. NRA-Life)
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To: tubebender

Isn't that the truth (about the sound)? The B-17 flew several times over my son's baseball game yesterday evening in Mountain View. There's nothing like the sound of those Wright Cyclone radial engines, is there? One plane gives me goose-bumps. Could you imagine an armada of 1,000 planes headed for Germany?


20 posted on 06/03/2006 8:23:42 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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