The Women’s Airforce Service Pilots

WASPs Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn in front of a B-17 Flying Fortress. These four female pilots leaving their ship at the four engine school at Lockbourne are members of a group of WASPS who have been trained to ferry the B-17 Flying Fortresses. (U.S. Air Force photo) [source]

Jacqueline Cochran, c. 1943. [source]

Formation
As the United States geared up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, it became clear that there were not enough military pilots to serve both home and abroad. Two women sprang into action to address this need. Nancy Harkness Love and Jacqueline Cochran both began lobbying for using women pilots in the war effort in 1941, but it would take a while for the lack of male pilots to be felt and overcome the prejudice against female pilots. In the summer of 1942, Love began recruiting women under the direction of the American Army Air Force and they were commissioned in September as the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron to ferry airplanes from factories to flight schools across the country. Meanwhile, Jacqueline Cochran had returned from setting up a similar group in Britain and was put in charge of the Women’s Flying Training Detachment in November of the same year under the Army Air Force commander, General Arnold. The first class of WFTDs started training at the Houston Municipal Airport before more permanent quarters were found for them in Sweetwater, Texas at the Avenger Airfield. Both groups continued to operate until August 1943 when they were merged to form the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots under Jacqueline Cochran.

WASP trainees, c. 1943. [source]

Training and Duties
At Avenger Field, the women were subject to military order, but were still considered civilians. They had to pay for their room and board and had no benefits if they were ill. The women were required to already have some flying experience, but also received addition training. They gained about 210 hours of flight time, spread between several of the most used military aircraft, and 285 hours of classroom instruction over seven months. Male pilots would often come visit the training grounds and Avenger Field was eventually limited to emergency landings only to prevent them from disrupting the women’s training, though that didn’t stop men from planning emergency landings to get a chance to spend time with the women. The planes were not designed for the women’s smaller frames and the WASPs would often carry extra parachutes to be used as booster seats. Despite this, these women often ferried some of the largest aircraft, including B-17 bombers. As they proved themselves as pilots, they were tapped to drag targets for live ammunition target practice, helped with flight training, and tested damaged aircraft. The WASPs were often the first to fly a plane off the line or after it had been repaired, jobs which required numerous emergency landings. Altogether, 1,074 women graduated from the program at Avenger Field, 38 of whom would die in the line of duty. Jacqueline Cochran refused to accept black women as WASPs – she was afraid their presence would jeopardize the program – but two Chinese women were accepted, one of whom, Hazel Ying Lee, died in a plane crash. Altogether, the WASPs ferried more than 12,000 planes and flew 60 million miles between 1942 and the end of the abrupt end of the program in December 1944.

President Barack Obama signs S.614 in the Oval Office July 1. The bill awards a Congressional Gold Medal to Women Airforce Service Pilots. The WASP program was established during World War II, and from 1942 to 1943, more than a thousand women joined, flying sixty million miles of non-combat military missions. Of the women who received their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots, approximately 300 are living today. (Official White House photo/Pete Souza) [source]

Delayed Recognition
The WASPs were never officially considered part of the military. In 1944, General Arnold supported a bill in congress to make the WASPs part of the regular military, but it failed. As the war wound down in Europe and more male pilots returned, the WASPs were considered superfluous and the program was terminated. The women were left in whatever city they happened to be in with no resources. The other WASPs would take up collections to help them get home. Since they weren’t considered veterans, they also had no access to veteran’s benefits, such as health care or education. Most of the women continued on with their lives, keeping in touch and forming reunion groups as the women aged, but not talking too much about their service. Then, in 1976, the Air Force released a statement they were accepting women to be pilots and it would be the first time women had flown for the Air Force. The WASPs were furious at the erasure of their history. After persistent lobbying, Congress granted the women veteran status in 1977. The women began speaking more about their service and built an archive at Texas Women’s University. Today, Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck of Texas Women’s University is one of the experts on the WASPs and has done a lot to bring their story into the public eye. She was interviewed a few years ago on the Stuff You Missed in History podcast [Part 1, Part 2], and has a book forthcoming in 2020, The Women with Silver Wings, which has already been optioned as a film. In 2010, the WASPs received the Congressional Gold Medal, though by that time, only about 300 of the WASPs were still alive. And the fight for their legacy continues. In 2018, the Texas Board of Education included the WASPs on a list of figures to remove from Texas history books in an effort to “streamline” curriculum, though the motion failed after public outcry.

442nd Regimental Combat Team

Go For Broke, DA Poster 21-91, US Army [source]. “Go for Broke” was the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

“Go For Broke”
The 442nd was the most decorated unit in WWII and is still the most decorated American unit in any war. It was composed entirely of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii and from the Japanese internment camps. The 442nd served with great bravery and distinction, even though they were repeatedly thrown into the heaviest fighting in Europe, living up to their motto “Go for Broke.” In October of 1944, the 442nd took two towns of the German border in almost two weeks of non-stop fighting and heavy casualties. After less than two days in reserve, they were ordered back in to rescue the “Lost Battalion.”

The Lost Battalion
Also known as the Alamo or Texas Battalion, the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry was ordered to battle in the Vosges Mountains on October 23rd of 1944. By the 24th, they had been surrounded by German forces. Supplies were airdropped for the unit, but efforts to reach them failed. On October 24th, the 442nd were ordered in. After five days of battle, the 442nd was able to reach the Lost Battalion and bring out 211 men. In the course of the rescue, the 442nd suffered 800 casualties.

Recognition
Three members of the 442nd were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions rescuing the Lost Battalion. Originally these were lesser awards, but they were reviewed in the 1990s and awarded the Medal of Honor they should have gotten. Altogether, the 442nd was awarded 21 Medal of Honors and 9,486 Purple Hearts, leading to the nickname “Purple Heart Battalion.” In 1962, Texas Governor John Connally made the 442nd “Honorary Texans” in honor of their rescue of the Lost Battalion.

Pershing’s Chinese

Chinese refugees brought by John Pershing arrive at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio[source]

Chinese in Texas
The first Chinese arrived in Texas with the railroads in the mid-19th century. But when the railroad boom died down, many of them left. In 1882, the Chinese-Exclusion Act was signed, prohibiting immigration from China. Chinese immigration to Texas would be pretty much non-existent until the act’s repeal in 1943. There was, however, one notable exception.

Chinese in Mexico
In 1916 and 1917, John Pershing led an expedition across the border into Mexico after Pancho Villa. While his troops searched the desert, they were often supplied by Chinese immigrants to Mexico, who would sell them food and other essentials while the locals were often decidedly hostile. Many of these Chinese had immigrated to Mexico after the Chinese-Exclusion Act was passed and they could no longer get into the US. Parts of Mexico still have a large Chinese population to this day.

John Pershing in 1919. By Harris & Ewing – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c13824, Public Domain, [source]

Unexpected Consequences
Despite their inability to capture or kill Pancho Villa, the expedition was declared a success in 1917 and President Wilson ordered the troops to return to the US. Pershing, however, was very aware of what would happen to those who had been friendly to the American troops after they left the area. Pershing appealed to his superior officers and was allowed to bring the Chinese (as well as American Mormons and Mexican citizens) who had helped the army back to the US. Altogether, about 525 Chinese came back to New Mexico, with the condition that they would work for the army.

A New Life in Texas
When Pershing was sent to San Antonio shortly after his return, about 425 of the Chinese followed him. They assisted in clearing ground and building a new army flight training center, as well as cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. They also threw themselves into the community life of San Antonio, organizing dinners with traditional Chinese foods to raise money for the Red Cross. In 1921, Pershing’s Chinese were granted permanent residency and, in 1943, when the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, nearly all of them applied for citizenship. Many Chinese Texans in San Antonio can still trace their ancestry back to this group of Chinese refugees.

Crystal City Internment Camp

Propaganda film made at Crystal City Internment Camp by the Immigration and Naturalization Services, c. 1945.

Suspicion and Removal
When World War II broke out, all people of German, Italian, and especially Japanese ancestry living in the US became suspect. Executive Order 9066 allowed for the creation of “Military Zones” and the removal of suspect people to military controlled concentration camps. The government also needed a place to hold prisoners of war and enemy aliens deported from Latin American countries in the name of “hemispheric safety.” At first, the people interned were mostly adult men, but many of their wives and children asked to go with them. The families were often left without a bread winner and wanted to be reunited with their husbands and fathers, who, in the case of those coming from Latin America, had been removed to an entirely different country. Looking around for a place far from anything important to the war effort, the government hit on Crystal City, Texas. The government already owned land in the area that had been used for housing migrant farm workers during the Great Depression, and it was connected to the local electrical grid and water systems.

Aerial view of Crystal City Internment Camp. Texas Historical Commission [source].

First Arrivals
In December of 1942, the first internee families arrived at Crystal City Internment Camp. Although the camp was meant primarily for people of Japanese ancestry, who would eventually make up about two-thirds of the internees, this first group was made up of Germans. In early 1943, another group, this time of Latin American Germans, arrived at the camp, followed shortly after by the first Japanese Americans. The government originally wanted to transfer all of the Germans out of the camp, but they asked to stay, since Crystal City was much nicer than any camp they’d stayed in previously, and the camp was instead segregated. There were tensions between the Japanese and German internees, but the Japanese were the much larger group and were often more organized, giving them a larger voice in the camp.

View of Victory Huts, looking south, courtesy UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures, [source]

Building a Life
From 1942 until 1948 when the camp closed, over 4,500 people were interned at Crystal City, including German, Japanese, and a small number of Italian Americans, as well as Germans and Japanese from Latin America, particularly Peru. At its height, Crystal City housed 3,374 people. The first groups helped to construct the family living quarters and additional buildings in the camp. There were three schools, the Federal (American), Japanese, and German; a swimming pool; a post office; newspapers; and cultural spaces, such as a Sumo wrestling ring and a Biergarten. The internees quickly out grew the available housing and “Victory Huts” were built to help house the excess. The internees were offered a small wage for work around the camp and often needed to make goods and grow crops to help make up for war-time shortages.

Women doing needlework, c. 1943, Crystal City internment camp, Texas. Courtesy of the UT Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, Betty Fly, No. 098-0982, Densho ID: ddr-densho-115-3 [source]

Leaving the Camp
As the war wound down, American internees were released to return to their lives. However, non-US citizens and those deported from Latin America remained in the camp. Many of the internees were exchanged to Germany or Japan in 1944, including American citizens who had never lived in these countries. Some were returned to the countries in Latin America, but Peru refused to allow the Japanese they had deported to return. Several hundred Japanese Peruvians remained in the camp while a lawsuit wound its way through the courts to determine their status. In 1948, they were finally “paroled” to work in a truck plant farm, but would remain undocumented immigrants until immigration law changed in 1952.