She flew noncombat missions as a pilot during World War II, but her service wasn’t enough to allow Elaine Harmon be inurned at Arlington National Cemetery.
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In the process, the campaign helped bring to light the long-forgotten exploits of the fearless female pilots known as the WASPs.
Sarah Byrn Rickman, a WASP historian and an acquaintance of Harmon, told the Monitor in a telephone interview on Wednesday that as she attended the military funerals of some of her fellow pilots, Harmon became inspired by the recognition that the United States government had finally given the group after so many years.
But Harmon’s family fought the new ruling after she died a year ago at the age of 95.
In 2002, WASPs won the right to have their ashes placed at Arlington, but the Army, which manages the cemetery, revoked those rights previous year.
County freeholders presented Linda Harmon of Ocean City, Elaine Harmon’s daughter-in-law, with a proclamation June 14 recognizing what she did, along with her family, to appeal to Congress to make the Army change its position. In December, an Associated Press article about the family’s campaign prompted widespread criticism of the Army for excluding WASPs.
In May, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law that overturned the U.S. Army’s decision to not allow women pilots who flew domestic missions in World War II to be buried at Arlington. She owed those women, she said, including Harmon.
“Look at any female aviator and please know she is still alive”, Penney said, referring to Harmon as her “spiritual grandmother”.
On Wednesday, McSally and Iowa Republican Sen.
Miller recalled how her grandmother wore her uniform on Veterans Day and gladly partook of free meals that restaurants would offer vets.
“There are certain times when it can be frustrating to break through those barriers – proving we have the capability to be fighter pilots – and the handful of times when I was exhausted of it or frustrated or discouraged, they [the WASPs] would inspire me to fight another day”, she said.
“I was mostly confused at first”.
The ceremony marked a final breakthrough for a group of women whose careers crashed through gender barriers and paved the way for other women in the military. Her ashes were put into her daughter’s closet. Every year for Halloween, she dressed up as the Wicked Witch to spook children who trekked up the dark house on the hill for candy, she said.
After almost a year of pushing back against the Army, the family of a female World War II pilot is finally getting its wish. But eligibility for above-ground placement of ashes is not as strict.
Kate Landdeck, a Texas Woman’s University history professor who has researched the WASPs, said roughly 1,000 women served as WASPs while the program was in effect from 1942 to 1944. The youngest is 93.
WASP pilot Elaine Danforth Harmon (R) greets guests during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony at the US Capitol on March 10, 2010 in Washington, DC. Congress recognized the group as such in 1977, opening up veteran benefits for the living members of the group.
The Ernst-backed WASP bill also received sponsorship from Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Congresswoman Martha McSally of Arizona, and Congresswoman Susan Davis of California.
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‘No one knew who these women were in the 1990s, ‘ Landdeck said.
