“It was a chance to fly planes that we would never be able to get our hands on if I didn’t join,” said Wheeler, 87.
Wheeler
was one of 1,074 women to become military-trained pilots, ferrying
fighters and bombers between bases and flying training missions across
the United States.
“That was my adventure. Then I got married and
had children,” said Nancye Crout, 89, of Merced, a WASP for almost two
years. “I was so glad I took advantage of that. It was certainly
something I am so happy I did.”
Wheeler and Crout will be among
the women pilots who will be talking about their experiences Saturday
at a program organized by Healdsburg author Jeane Slone, who wrote “She
Flew Bombers,” and sponsored by the Sonoma County Arts Council.
Slone’s
historical novel, which took 3½ years to complete, follows the career
of one WASP and weaves in the stories of many others.
“Everything
in the book is based on fact. The stories are about the women who were
flying,” Slone said. “One woman got shot in the toe. She had the bullet
removed and made into a necklace.”
Slone said she started with
the idea of writing about her mother, a member of the Women’s Army
Corps, when she discovered the WASPs.
“What interested me was
that 38 died and never left the United States. They got no burial
services paid for and they were not allowed to have a flag draped over
their coffin. The girls all chipped in for the cost,” said Slone.
They
were not well-treated, but that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm. There
were 25,000 women who applied for the program, 1,900 were accepted and
just 1,074 earned their wings.
“They did it because they had the flying bug,” Slone said.
Wheeler,
a Healdsburg High School teacher for 30 years, said she learned to fly
at San Jose State, where she was a student, and then became a flight
instructor in Alturas.
“You can be up 6,000 feet all by yourself
and you can see to the Sierra, the Farallones, you can see Mt. Shasta,
beautiful, just beautiful,” Wheeler said, describing her love of
flying. “And you are in charge of this machine. It’s kind of great.”
Wheeler
said she already had 1,500 hours of flight time when she joined the
WASPs, who underwent training by the Army Air Corps but remained
civilian employees.
The 300 remaining WASPs are being honored now and receiving the Congressional Gold Medal.
The
WASPs were formed as a para-military organization with its
predecessors, the Women’s Flying Training Detachment and the Women’s
Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in 1943. Before it was disbanded, 38 of the
women were killed in flight accidents.
“WASPs never went
overseas, they were always in the continental United States. They towed
targets, there were gunners shooting live ammo at us. They flew planes
from manufacturers, they flew planes that were serviced to see if they
were flyable,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler only had 10 days of service
after she earned her wings at Sweetwater, Texas, before the group was
disbanded in December 1944.
“I loved it, good lord,” said Wheeler
of the experience and camaraderie. “I had never seen such enthusiasm
and excitement and joy as they showed as they were marching off to the
flight lines or the classroom. It was just a buzz. You could tell by
the enthusiasm they showed they were in heaven.”
Crout, who also
learned to fly while in college in Texas, was one of the first women
trained, serving from February 1943 to December 1944. She flew dive
bombers in nighttime missions to train soldiers to find aircraft with
search lights and piloted bombers that would trail targets behind them
for gunnery practice.
She was young, 23, excited and unafraid, she said.
“I
just saw an opportunity to fly bigger and better planes than we had
when we were going through the initial training. It appealed to me very
much,” Crout said. “I had two brothers who were Navy pilots during the
war. It was a family thing.”
The program is Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Rosa.
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.
