Harmon, a Baltimore native and pilot, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday after her family fought all the way to the White House to guarantee that women who flew non-combat missions during World War II would be afforded the honor. Her family campaigned for WASPs’ burial rights to be restored, and in May, Congress passed a law, signed by President Barack Obama, that once again allowed WASPs their place among the veterans at the cemetery.
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After almost a year of pushing back against the Army, the family of a female World War II pilot is finally getting its wish. McSally made sure she was in attendance for Wednesday’s funeral. And when the war was winding down, the WASPs were dismissed and their jobs were given back to male military pilots.
Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), along with 191 co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 4336, the Women Airforce Service Pilot Arlington Inurnment Restoration Act in January 2016.
Jennifer Lee presents Terry Harmon with the flag for her mother, WWII pilot Elaine Harmon, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Harmon died at the age of 95 in April previous year. The family had kept her ashes in a bedroom closet while they worked to get Arlington’s exclusionary policy overturned.
The WASPs had been promised they’d receive military status, but during the war, they never did.
The Army laid Harmon’s remains to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, where she joined many other fellow veterans. She owed those women, she said, including Harmon.
Lt. Col. Caroline Jensen, an Air Force reservist with more than 200 combat hours who was the Thunderbirds’ first flying mom, said she is one of the Harmon Air Force granddaughters. Miller said she couldn’t believe the Army considered her grandmother’s ashes ineligible for Arlington.
Harmon asked to be buried at the cemetery in a letter that was left inside a fireproof file box and found by the family after her death, the Times noted.
And to honor her before the funeral, female pilots across the country took turns flying Harmon’s burial flag in their planes – from jet fighters to commercial airliners.
In 2002, the women known as WASPs were granted military burial at Arlington.
“For 30-some years”, she said, “they’ve been trying to shove us under the rug”. The rules for in-ground burials are very strict at Arlington. “In a way, we’ve already grieved, and this now is about closure”.
Kate Landdeck, a Texas Woman’s University history professor who has researched the WASPs, said roughly 1,100 women earned their wings while the program was in effect from 1942 to 1944. Now there are fewer than 100 alive, with the youngest being 93 years old, WRC reported.
The women, who test-flew repaired military aircraft, trained combat pilots and towed airborne targets that other pilots fired at with live ammunition, received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009, but the campaign to get them into Arlington exposed even more people to WASPs’ role in history.
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“No one knew who these women were in the 1990s”, Landdeck said.
