WACS wore Air Crew Wings and Flight Engineer Wings

[cutiger83]

I am always interested in learning about women who served in the military. I did not know that Air WACS wore Air Crew wings. Rats! Something else I now need to buy. I found this interesting from the book “Dressed for Duty”:

 

“Air WACS served as clerical workers, communications, in control towers, and as aircraft mechanics, among other jobs. Some served aboard aircraft as radio operators. At least twenty Air WACS received a pair of air crew wings. In 1946, many WACS were trained at the ATC Flight Traffic Technicians School at Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, Florida to serve aboard planes with the Air Transport Command. They drew flight pay and were awarded Army Air Force Air Crew Member wings.”

 

...Kat

[rustywings]

Kat, you've posted an interesting topic which I'm sure few of us know much about. It took many decades before WASP's and Flight Nurses received their just recognition. I'd like to hear more about those Air WACS who served as in-flight radio operators...

[cutiger83]

Kat, you've posted an interesting topic which I'm sure few of us know much about. It took many decades before WASP's and Flight Nurses received their just recognition. I'd like to hear more about those Air WACS who served as in-flight radio operators...

 

Russ,

 

Thanks so much for responding. I will see if I can find out more information about the Air WACS. Especially the ones who earned their wings in WWII.

 

...Kat

[BEAST]

Kat, please post more info if you find any. It would be great if someone found a photo of an Air WAC wearing her wings.

[bobgee]

Kat - Never knew that. Hope someone has a pic of an Aircrew rated WAC. Bobgee

[cutiger83]

I found one. I can't figure out how to get this picture copied.

 

http://www.awm.lee.army.mil/pdfs_docs/-Emma%20Jane%20Burrows%20Windham.docx.pdf

 

Private First Class Emma Jane Burrows Windham

US Army Women’s Museum 2012

Before joining the Women’s Army Corps (WAC),Private First Class Emma Jane Burrows Windham majored in aeronautical engineering at the University of California, held a civilian pilot's license, and was credited with 349 flying hours. She was the Director of Flying for the New Mexico Wing of Women Flyers when asked to join the WAC. PFC Windham was the Army's first WAC crew chief and flight engineer. She served in the European Theater of Operations where her wings were a matter of such curiosity that Military Policemen stopped her on the streets to ask her authority for wearing the air crew member's insignia. Windham earned her wings while stationed at Gore Field, Montana. Qualifying for the dual rating of crew chief and flight engineer, Windham completed many flights from Montana to Fairbanks, Alaska, and cross-country from Montana to Florida. In England, she was assigned to the Air Inspector's Office of the Air Transportation Command’s European Division. She was killed on March 31, 1945 when the C-17 she was in collided with a C-47 over England. The research done by the Army Women’s Museum and Windham’s family has unearthed evidence of more than 500 women on flight status during WWII.

[bschwartz]

Wow, that is very interesting. I had never heard of WACs wearing wings before. Thank you for posting this. Really shows that there is always something new to learn. Terrible that she died in a crash in 1945. Had she survived I bet she would have had some great stories to share. The WACs, WASPs and all the women who served had some serious barriers to overcome back then. I was lucky enough to meet many WASPs over the years and their stories were always captivating. Same with the Tuskegee Airmen I've met. Great stuff.

[cutiger83]

The WACs, WASPs and all the women who served had some serious barriers to overcome back then.

 

You are exactly correct about the barriers! While researching these Air WACS, I found more than one resource that stated the AAF was much more willing and receptive of accepting women into their ranks than any other branch. I found this very interesting.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Forces

Women served more successfully as part of the war-time Army Air Forces. The AAF was willing to experiment with its allotment from the unpopular Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) and became an early and determined supporter of full military status for women in the Army (Women’s Army Corps or WACs). WACs serving the in the AAF became such an accepted and valuable part of the service they earned the distinction of being commonly (but unofficially) known as "Air WACs." Nearly 40,000 women served in the WAACs and WACs as AAF personnel, more than 1,000 as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), and 6,500 as nurses in the Army Air Forces, including 500 flight nurses. 7,601 "Air WACs" served overseas in April 1945, and women performed in more than 200 job categories.

 

 

[cutiger83]

Here is some more interesting information on the Army website. I am highlighting just a little bit of the great information on their website.

 

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Wac/ch16.htm

 

Flying Jobs for Women

 

In the field, the Air Forces' progressive attitude was demonstrated chiefly by an equal lack of inhibitions in the assignment of women to new and unconventional jobs. No AAF schools were barred to women except combat schools, and no AAF jobs for which they could qualify, however unusual for women. It was not even the Air Forces' intention to exclude women from the most extreme masculine province: its flying schools and assignment as pilot.

 

Enlisted flying jobs for WACS, other than that of pilot, were never forbidden, although no such jobs had been considered by early planners because of the greater need for women elsewhere. As soon as assignment was turned over to local authorities, it proved impossible to keep a few women out of certain flying duties for which they had peculiar qualifications. Within two months Mitchel Field reported that it possessed the first two "flying Wacs," radio operators who were participating in B-17 training flights. This precipitated scores of requests from other Wacs for flying duty. A few more WAC radio operators, mechanics, and photographers were soon assigned to regular runs. Several such Wacs actually received Air Medals, including one in India for her work in mapping the Hump, and one posthumously after the crash of an aerial broadcasting plane.

 

Both the women and the airfields concerned were ordinarily so pleased with themselves for accomplishing flying duty assignments that Air Forces headquarters, when it discovered them, published a directive authorizing such duty provided that the flights concerned were not for purposes of combat training, and that Wacs did not replace any man who might be receiving combat training on these flights.

 

Later in the war the Air Transport Command repeatedly proposed to use Wacs to replace male flight clerks on scheduled passenger runs. This was at first discouraged because of the irregular housing arrangements involved, but was eventually approved on a small scale and proved successful in flights such as those from Paris to London.

[Terry K.]

That's great Kat. I always wondered why they never utilized more women as pilots. They were usually smaller in frame and weighed less, all of which is very important in aviation. The Russians used them to great success.

Terry

[ram957]

Here ya go...

[cutiger83]

Here ya go...

 

Thank you so much! I find it interesting that she also has on the ATC DUI's.

 

...Kat

[BROBS]

and an A2 jacket!?

 

your collecting just got expensive.......

 

-Brian

[bobgee]

Excellent. Live and Learn..........especially in the military collecting arena! Thanks!!!!!! Bobgee

[rathbonemuseum.com]

More on Emma Jane "Windy" Burrows, who qualified for both an aircrew badge and flight engineer badge.

 

"Windham hailed from San Antonio, Texas. A wartime feature by "Stars and Stripes" reported that she and her five brothers all held civilian pilot licenses. A recent account portrays her as an only child who successfully ran away from home sometime after age 12 to escape a hard, migratory life. Either way, Windham studied aeronautical engineering at the University of California and was the director of flight training for the New Mexico Wing of Women Flyers before enlisting into the WAC in late 1943.

While serving in Montana with the Air Transport Command, Windham flew regular hops to Seattle, Alaska and Florida as the engineer on multi-engine aircraft. By early 1945 she had been reassigned to the Air Inspector's office in England where she was noted as the only WAC aerial engineer in the European Theater of Operations and so much a rarity that military police stopped her on the street to question her authorization to wear air crew wings.

Tragically, Windham was killed in a training mission over England on March 31, 1945, less than six weeks before the war in Europe came to an end, when her B-17G "Flying Fortress" collided with another aircraft in a heavy overcast. She was 23 years old and the first WAC to give her life in the line of duty in the ETO.

Windham was also one of 16 WACs to receive the Purple Heart during the war. Nearly 40,000 women served in the AAF as WACs or its predecessor the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, performing in more than 200 job categories including administration, logistics and communications. More than 500 WACs were on flight status during World War II."

 

https://www.malmstrom.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Display/Article/825374/paths-of-two-air-force-women-firsts-crossed-over-great-falls/

[rathbonemuseum.com]

[rathbonemuseum.com]

More items from the nephew who provided to the US Army Women's Museum for an exhibit including the very tragic MACR.

 

 

[rathbonemuseum.com]

Her wings were so important they were attached to her headstone. @cutiger83

[Noelle]

On 3/19/2015 at 8:29 PM, cutiger83 said:

 

AAF was willing to experiment with its allotment from the unpopular Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) and became an early and determined supporter of full military status for women in the Army (Women’s Army Corps or WACs). … Nearly 40,000 women served in the WAACs and WACs as AAF personnel, more than 1,000 as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)…

 

I’m pretty sure the WASPs would disagree with you, especially considering that the Air Force announced in 1973 that it was just them teaching women to fly military planes, surviving WASPs had to fight for recognition, for it in 1977, and it was a further two years before the Air Force acknowledged them.  Seems like the Air Force dragged their feet on supporting them.