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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWWII female pilots (WASPS) now can be buried at Arlington (but, there is NO war on women!!)
(the fact that it has taken THIS long, the fact that the patriarchal assholes in charge deemed their service "did not rise to the level required" is beyond disgusting. These women were true sheroes, and the treatment they received at the hands of the govt they served is a true obscenity_
WWII female pilots now can be buried at Arlington
WASPs Ann McClellan, Catherine Houser, Mary Jane Stephens, Lida Dunham and an unidentified woman in their barracks.
President Obama signed a measure allowing WWII female pilots to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2015, those in the WASP program were deemed ineligible to be buried at the Army-operated cemetery
(CNN)Women who served as pilots during World War II finally can be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, thanks to bipartisan efforts. President Barack Obama signed a bill into law allowing the ashes of woman who flew in the Women Airforce Service Pilots program (WASP) to be laid to rest at the military cemetery.
For Tiffany Miller, who launched an online petition last year to have her grandmother Danforth Harmon's ashes allowed into Arlington, the recent news has been overwhelming.
"It was her last wish to be in Arlington. We haven't been able to hold a funeral for her because we wanted to honor that wish," the 37-year-old told CNN. Harmon's grandmother was fresh out of college when she joined the WASP program in 1944, flying with male pilots who needed to go through instrument training. The 22-year-old was in the program for less than a year before it was dismantled, but the experience had a lasting impact, Miller said.
These original fly girls flew countless U.S. Army Air Forces planes for noncombat missions during the war in order to free up their male counterparts for combat. Between 1942 and 1944, they flew more than 60 million miles in bombers, transports and trainer aircraft.
In 1977, the female pilots were granted veteran status, but it wasn't until 2002 that they were able to be buried at Arlington, which falls under Army regulations, unlike cemeteries operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In 2015, then-Army Secretary John McHugh revoked that right after lawyers determined that those in the WASP program, listed as "active duty designees," did not meet Army eligibility rules. That meant their ashes could no longer be placed in an above-ground structure at Arlington, according to a memo from McHugh that the Miller family obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/21/politics/wwii-female-pilots-arlington-cemetery-irpt/
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)Women were heroes too in WWll, making planes or flying them among other tasks. You go gals, wherever you are now!
One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)Audie Murphy was a Hero. Many of the boys on Omaha beach were hero's. These women just like their male counterparts served honorably. But most were denied the opportunity to do something heroic. That makes them Honorable, deserving to be in Arlington, but not Hero's.
niyad
(113,860 posts)perhaps you could study their records, their achievements, and then say that.
One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)I hadn't realized they were flying a bomb and planned to parachute out over the target like Joe Kennedy. Or that they singlehandedly captured an enemy held hillside or jumped up on the back of a burning tank to use the Machine Gun to save their fellow soldiers.
Millions pf people served honorably during the war. Giving false valor to people only cheapens what a very few people actually did.
niyad
(113,860 posts)Albertoo
(2,016 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Dogma often reduces a simplistic mind to merely two options. The denial of both nuance and context is convenient for the simple... there's the rub.
Albertoo
(2,016 posts)DLevine
(1,788 posts)I'm surprised to see a Democrat dispute that.
DLevine
(1,788 posts)Albertoo
(2,016 posts)Maybe because it's an imaginary war?
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)niyad
(113,860 posts)interesting line (one wonders why the military felt that the records needed to be sealed.)
. . . .
All records of the WASP were classified and sealed for 35 years, so their contributions to the war effort were little known and inaccessible to historians. In 1975, under the leadership of Col. Bruce Arnold, son of General Hap Arnold, the WASP fought the "Battle of Congress" in Washington, D.C., to have the WASP recognized as veterans of World War II. They organized as a group again and tried to gain public support for their official veteran recognition. Finally in 1977, the records were unsealed after an Air Force press release erroneously stated the Air Force was training the first women to fly military aircraft for the U.S.[17]
. . . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Airforce_Service_Pilots
niyad
(113,860 posts)excerpt fro hap arnold's speech to last class of WASPs
You and more than 900 of your sisters have shown that you can fly wingtip to wingtip with your brothers. If ever there was a doubt in anyones mind that women can become skillful pilots, the WASPs have dispelled that doubt.
- Gen. Hap Arnold, AAF, in a speech to the last class of WASPs, before the program was disbanded in December 1944.