Female pilots who flew during WWII can now be buried at Arlington
More than 1,000 women were trained as pilots for the American military during World War II, but their legacy had never been fully recognized until Friday when President Barack Obama signed bipartisan legislation giving them the right to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
The female service members were part of a program called Women's Airforce Service Pilots and were known by the acronym WASPs. They flew the largest bombers and quickest fighters. They towed targets for gunnery training and ferried more than half of the combat aircraft within the U.S. during World War II. Thirty-eight of the women died during their service.
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Despite their essential contributions to the war effort, they were largely omitted from history, according to the Air Force Historical Support Division. Following the program's closure in 1944, their records were classified.
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It wasn't until the 1970s, when the Air Force began training female pilots, that the WASPs insisted on recognition for their groundbreaking role.
Against opposition from traditional veterans groups, they were granted veteran status, with limited benefits, in 1977. A 2009 bill awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to women who served in the WASP. They weren't granted the right to a prestigious burial in Arlington National Cemetery until 2002, but a change made to Army policy last year overturned that policy.
The legislation signed by the president restored it, much to the relief of WASPs and their family members. Last year, Tiffany Miller, the granddaughter of Danforth Harmon, started a Change.org petition to recognize the WASP as eligible for burial and inurnment at Arlington; it was signed more than 178,000 times.
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"It was her last wish to be in Arlington," Miller said to CNN, speaking of her grandmother Elaine Danforth Harmon. "We haven't been able to hold a funeral for her because we wanted to honor that wish."
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Maryland) sponsored legislation and said in a statement that it "righted a terrible wrong."
"If they were good enough to fly for our country, risk their lives and earn the Congressional Gold Medal, they should be good enough for Arlington," she said.
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Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes. Rebecca has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a masters degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
