V. Scotty Bradley Gough, 44-W-7 | May 22, 2013

"Don’t ever put limits on your dreams.   Dream farther and higher than you can imagine.   I would never have flown if I hadn’t looked to the sky and beyond." 

/s/ Scotty Bradley Gough, 44-7

Scotty Bradley was born on October 28, 1922 in Los Angeles, California.  She lost her mother at an early age, so she and her two brothers were raised by their dad. 

From the time she could remember, she said she wanted to fly.  Even before she was old enough to take lessons, she read everything she could on flying.  When she realized that pilots had to have good eyesight, she began eating carrots, one each day, which she did for the rest of her life. 

After high school graduation,  she was chosen as one of ten finalists for a college scholarship. When interviewed, she was asked what she wanted to be,  and what courses she would take.  When she told the committe she wanted to be a pilot and take aeronautical engineering courses, the looks on their faces convinced her the scholarship was not going to happen.  So, she began working in a bank, earning $25 a week.  Her dad encouraged her to take part of her salary and follow her dream.  She did.

Scotty began taking ground school and flying lessons at Glendale Municipal Airport in Glendale, California.  It was after she had soloed and on an early  Sunday morning (December 7, 1941), while practicing landings,  that she was given a red light signal.  When she taxied to the hangar, she learned that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.  America was at war.   Immediately, all civilian flying within 200 miles of the coast was grounded.

In order to be able to continue flying, she commuted inland to Blythe, California, whose municipal airport was beyond the restricted coast line 'no-fly'  zone.   There she worked on the weekends with an ambulance corps that was teaching women to fly.  Once the Blythe Army Air Field became operational,  Scotty relocated closer to the base and worked in the base's control tower.  However,  she also continued to build up her flying time.

When Scotty heard about the WASP training program, she wrote to Jackie Cochran, the originator of the program and its director.  The reply was disappointing.  She was told that, although she had all the basic requirements,  she wasn’t old enough.  She then knew that she would have to wait a year before reapplying.

During that year, the owner of the local airport offered her free flying time if she would make parachute jumps, which would attract people to the airport.  Her instructions for her first jump came from the parachute rigger:  “When you jump out that door, you count to ten real slow, because I don’t want that parachute caught in the tail and ripped up.”   She made her first jump and continued jumping and building up her flying time until she was old enough to report to Avenger Field for WASP training.

Scotty paid her way to Sweetwater, Texas and, on February 11, 1944,  reported for training (together with ninety-seven other hopeful young women pilots) as a member of Class 44-W-7.    She was immediately chosen Squadron Commander.  This ‘honor’ meant she was responsible for marching the trainees everywhere, was last in line for the mess hall, and the first one out the door each morning in order to line up her classmates to march to their destination, be it the mess hall, flight line,  ground school, or calisthenics.    

For the next seven months, she went through the Army Air Force’s training program, taking the same type classes and flying the same type airplanes as the AAF cadets were flying.   On September 8, 1944, Scotty and fifty-eight of her classmates graduated.  One final time, Scotty lined them up,  and they proudly marched onto the stage to receive their silver WASP wings.

After graduating,  she received her Army Air Force orders to  report to Williams Army Air Field in Mesa, Arizona, which was under the command of the West Coast Training Center.  While there, she was assigned to fly ferry missions in AT-6‘s.  She also flew as an engineering test pilot, making sure that damaged or red-lined planes had been repaired and were safe for the cadets and instructors to fly. 

When the WASP were deactivated, she returned to California and flew sighteeing flights around southern California.  Eventually, she joined other WASP as part of a ferrying service, flying planes to civilian factories around the country and back to California.

In November of 1947, Scotty married Peter Gough, the brother of classmate Joan Frost Gough.  She continued flying until the young couple started their family.    Her last commercial flight as a pilot was the day Idlewild Airport became John F. Kennedy Airport.  Although she was seven months pregnant at the time, Scotty flew a Luscome as part of the opening day ceremonies.   With the arrival of each of their children:  Michael, Joan-Scott, Larry,  and Connie, she was a dedicated, full-time mom. 

For many years, she shared her story as a WASP by traveling to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and speaking at EAA’s Air Venture. She was also a tireless volunteer in the WASP Stores at Oshkosh and at other air shows across the country. She was a frequent speaker at local events and schools and helped establish a WASP exhibit at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Base. 

In 2002, she was inducted into the 99‘s “Forest of Friendship,” and in 2007, she was inducted into the "Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame".  She was a life member of the First Flight Society at Kitty Hawk and an Honorary Commander at Dover Air Base in Delaware.  

How did Scotty feel about being a WASP?

“ I want you to know that all of us were just -- some people asked us, you know, why we did this-- why we flew.   It was an honor and a privilege for us to serve our country, doing what we loved best, and that was to fly. But to tell you the truth, and every WASP will agree with me on this:  if I had had the money at that time, I would have gladly paid them for that wonderful training and the opportunity to fly those wonderful airplanes.”

In 2010, Scotty and her sister WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their outstanding service to our country during World War II.  At the ceremony, which was held in the Emancipation Hall of the United States Capitol, she was seated on the front row.

Scotty never lost her love of flying or of parachute jumping.  Always an outstanding athlete, she eventuallly added golf, tennis, bowling, gardening and cards to her passions, along with enthusiastically 'rooting' for her favorite team: the Maryland Terrapins.  She loved living near the beach, where she spent time walking and swimming.  Her many acts of kindness she kept to herself, but her family is just now beginning to learn the depth of her compassionate, loving spirit.  

On May 22, Scotty quietly slipped away. Her two daughters were at her bedside.   Her latest hospital stay and battle with pneumonia had weakened her to the point that,  when she developed a bacterial infection, she wasn't able to overcome it.  Her one wish was to go back home, which she was able to do on May 21st.  Her family later learned that the day she died was also the birthday of her younger brother, who had been deceased for several years.  

Scotty took her final flight  moments before a terrible rain storm arrived.  Her family is sure  she wanted to get beyond the clouds before they came in, as they lovingly  expressed it:  "She'd always look at the clouds and say how beautiful they were,  but she wouldn't want to be flying through them.”    

“What we'll all remember and miss about mom was her ever present smile, her constant wave and greeting of:   "Hello,  Love",  and her usual farewell of:   "God Bless."

Scotty was preceeded in death by her husband, Peter W. Gough and her younger brother, William Bradley.  She is survived by her children Michael Peter Gough, Joan-Scott Gough, Laurence Bradley Gough and Constance Josephine Gough.  One grandchild, Heather Foster, USAF MD, is currently a flight doctor in Afghanistan.  She is also survived by her older brother Laurence Bradley and sisters-in-law Joan Bradley and Pat Gough, along with numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial mass to celebrate Scotty's life will be held at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Bethany Beach, Delaware on June 25, 2013.

Personal note:

I first met Scotty at Oshkosh, where I was immediately captivated by her sweet spirit and gentle encouragement.  Her ‘Hello Love’ and ‘God bless you’ were always a part of every conversation.  Those words echo today, as I see her smiling face and sparkling eyes-- 20/20 vision from all those carrots! 

Until her health prevented her, she was at every WASP function, including the opening of the Fly Girls Exhibit at the Women’s Memorial in 2008 and the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in 2010.  On both occasions, I still remember her sitting smack dab in the center of  the front row!   Scotty, as always, was smiling.  

Scotty at the CAF Air Show.  In the background, her photo in her
WASP uniform, 1944, although she wasn't a fan of the beret.

My life has been  touched by the incredible women who have gone before--like Scotty -- by their passion and their invincible spirits--by their kindness and their encouragement.  Over the last few years, Scotty and I shared a passion for women’s basketball and for the Baylor Lady Bears.  She would call,  or I would call,  or her daughter, Joan,  would call,  and we would all be cheering.  I will miss those days, but I will never forget.

Scotty Gough was more than a WASP to me.  She was a friend.  

God bless her family and all who have been touched by this special lady.  We are all blessed for having known her.

Respectfully posted by Nancy Parrish

Sources:

Betty Turner’s “Out of the Blue and Into History”

Veteran’s History Project interview with V. Scotty Gough

Marguerite "Sis" Tuffin Bernhardt, 44-W-3 | May 15, 2013

“We all did what they asked us to do… We were just happy doing what we were doing. It was a rarity. We were thrilled to be a part of it.   It was our war, our country and we were able to help.”  /s/Marguerite Sis Tuffin Bernhardt, 44-W-3

WASP Marguerite Tuffin Bernhardt was born in Hartford,  Connecticut on May 27, 1919 to a bookkeeper dad and part-time schoolteacher mom.  She fell in love with flying as a young girl.  At age thirteen, she built her first model airplane with balsa wood, glue,  and tissue paper. 

At age sixteen , Marguerite  applied for a ground school program for boys who wanted to learn how to fly.  Although the school didn’t actually teach flying, her classes were in Physics Of Flight, Navigation and Airplane Engines.  She was the only girl in a class of thirty.  When asked how the boys felt about having a female classmate, she later said, "Some of the boys didn't take to it, but I didn't care.  The course was three or four months,  and only two boys and I finished it."

After graduating from high school, Marguerite worked as a clerk with an insurance company and, every two weeks, she was able to take one week’s salary and pay for a flying lesson. "I didn't always get my lesson. They would take men first. So I’d say, 'OK, I'll wait’,  but just doing it, just being up there. I wasn't disappointed."

In order to keep flying and learn more about airplanes, Marguerite took a job working on airplane electrical systems at Bradley Field, Connecticut. While there, her mother told her about the military training program for women pilots.   She applied and, after completing the personal interview, tests,  and Army physical, she was accepted as a member of class 44-W-3.

Marguerite  paid her way from Conneticut to Sweetwater, Texas,  which was not an easy trip during World War II.   Of the 100 young women pilots who entered her training class, she was one of only fifty-seven who graduated.  On April 14, 1944, Marguerite proudly donned her Santiago Blue uniform and received her silver WASP wings.

After graduation, she was assigned to Perrin Army Air Base in Sherman, Texas, where she flew AT-6’s, AT-17’s and BT-13’s.  While at Perrin, she was given a temporary assignment to Bryan Army Air Base in Bryan, Texas. 

While stationed at Bryan, Marguerite completed Instrument Instructor’s School and received her Green Instrument Card, qualifying her to instruct on instruments and to make decisions about fly/don’t fly when the weather called for instrument flying.  She instructed Army Air Force cadets in instrument flying until the WASP were disbanded on December 20, 1944. 

She then returned to her home in Connecticut and married.  Eventually,  the couple had one son, Robin.   

Marguerite was living in the Ocala, Florida area when the news about the WASP being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour our nation can award a civilian, was first released.   Although she was not able to travel to Washington, she instantly became a local celebrity with the aviation community and the local newspapers.  In May, 2010, she was awarded her replica Congressional Gold Medal by Congressman Cliff Stearns.

Over the last several years, Marguerite found joy in attending local air shows and other aviation related events, making new friends and sharing her story with a new generation of Americans.   

Friend Connie McConnell shared her thoughts about Marguerite: 

       “What a privilege to know such a wonderful lady.   My husband said she was the best of the best. She was just one of a kind. She was feisty and strong-willed, but she was the most gentle person that you would ever know, and always gracious about everything,"

Marguerite recently told her friend that, with the exception of the birth of her son, being part of the WASP was the best experience of her life.  Because of this patriotic American and her WASP peers, today  women are flying as military pilots in every uniformed service. 

  

Marguerite Bernhardt took her last flight on May 15, in Ocala, FLorida at Hospice of Marion County’s Estelle’s House.   She was ninety-three.

She is survived by her brother,  George Tuffin;  granddaughter, Renate Bernhardt;  and great granddaughters Kiley and McKenzie. She was preceded in death by her only son, Robin.

A military memorial service will be held June 12, 2013 at the Florida National Cemetery.

God bless this American patriot and trailblazer and all of those whose lives she touched.

Respectfully posted by Nancy Parrish

Resources:

Ocala Star Banner    March9,2010   

Veterans Project of Marion County 

Ocala Star Banner, March 28, 2010

Dori Marland Martin, 43-W-8 | April 22, 2013

“I wanted to do something in the war.  I didn’t know what, but I wanted to do something...because all of my boyfriends, everybody I knew was doing something.   I didn’t just want to sit home and model or be an actress.    I tried to donate blood, and they said, ‘Well, you’re not old enough’.   Then my father told me about the WASP , and I thought, “Well, that’s perfect.  That would be perfect.  I had several boyfriends who were airline Captains.  I had excellent instruction!”

 WASP Dori Marland Martin, who traded her career as a Hollywood actress to fly for her country as a WASP, has flown her last mission. On April 22, 2013, she turned her face to the sun, smiled, and quietly slipped away.   

____

 She was born Dori Marie Jugle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 14, 1921 to Richard Marland Jugel, President of ABCO Ball Mill (a mining machinery company) and his wife, Marie Henkel Jugle.    Dori never stayed longer than two years in one school, as the family traveled back and forth from Pennsylvania to Colorado.  Between elementary and high school, she skipped three grades. Not wanting her to graduate too early, school officials suggested she be kept out of school each time she was advanced a grade.  

During her time off, Dori fell in love with horses and, at age fourteen, she became a champion rider on her horse, ‘Firebird’.  She rode in the hunting, jumping, bareback and English categories, and was  Colorado State Champion  for the ‘under eighteen’ category  for three years in a row.   Eventually, the family moved to Chicago, where Dori spent her last two years of high school,  swimming with the Lake Shore A.C. Water Ballet Team.  

After high school graduation, in August of 1940, Dori won the Catalina Swim Suits  national competition for the “Most Beautiful Figure.”  The prize included a trip to California, where she enrolled as a full time student at the Pasadena Playhouse.  She took her father’s middle name as her official stage name and became Dori Marland.   She spent two years learning the craft of acting  and working at Paramount Pictures.  During her time off,  she taught riding.  

After America was attacked at Pearl Harbor, Dori wanted to do something to help the war effort.  Like many other Hollywood starlets,  she agreed to pose for a 'pin-up picture' as a morale booster for the troops.  However, she was desperate to do more.   Her father told her about a training program for women pilots to fly for the Army Air Forces.  She immediately returned to Denver and began taking flying lessons from two boyfriends, both Captains with Continental Air Lines.  After soloing in a Luscomb, she continued building up her hours.  Once she met the requirements, she applied for the WASP training program, was interviewed in Denver,  and was accepted.   

She reported to Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas right after the Fourth of July in 1943 as a member of class 43-W-8.  After completing six months of flight training, Dori and 48 of her classmates graduated in the first ceremony held inside the new gymnasium at Avenger Field.  It was also the first time that graduates sat on the stage.  Although no band played and there was no ‘pass in review’, the graduates were the first class of WASP to wear the newly designed official Women Airforce Service Pilots silver wings.  

After graduation, Dori was sent to Douglas Army Air Field, Arizona,  the largest twin engine advanced training base in the United States.  Her jobs included engineering testing and,  as she later described it,  “going places and bringing planes,  that were wrecked or just barely making it,  back to Douglas to be repaired,  and administrative flying--flying Generals around who want to see things.” 

While at Douglas, she was sent on temporary assignment to Orlando, Florida, where she completed the officer’s training program.  Eventually, she was transferred from Douglas to Kingman, Arizona.  There, she completed the B-26 transition training and flew tow target missions for air-to-air gunnery practice.  Her last duty station was Luke Field, Arizona, where she flew single engine trainers.

After the WASP were disbanded, Dori returned to Denver and took a job modeling designer fashions.  On New Year’s Eve, she met Colonel Herbert Morgan, WWII Flying Tiger Ace, former Aide to General Chenault and the Commanding Officer at Casper, Wyoming AAB.   They were married in the Lowry AFB Chapel in Denver, Colorado in June of 1945.  Eventually, her husband became Commanding Officer at Clovis Army Air Base, New Mexico, which was the largest B-29 Operational Training Unit in the United States.  From Clovis, her husband was transferred to the Pentagon, so they moved to Washington. 

Shortly afterwards, Dori returned to Denver, ending her marriage.  She then began touring with an acting company, performing at air bases in the Rocky Mountain Region.   

“I played the ingénue,  of course.  And one night, one of the key characters didn’t show up (one of the older ladies), so I took that part.  And I had an old wig and the wrinkles on my face, and I was just horrified.  Nobody looked at me.  Nobody said ‘hello’.  None of the boys paid any attention to me.  I just was really horrified, so I never played her again!  From there on, I stuck with the ingénue.”

Eventually, she moved back to  California, where she took a modelling job at I. Magnin & Co., which included modelling hats for the artists to draw for magazine ads. 

Dori's  father encouraged her to continue flying and,  in 1947,  friend Jo Stafford asked her to pilot her plane in the Cleveland Air Races.   She agreed and entered the race.  She was in the lead when the plane had engine problems and eventually quit at tree top level.   Dori survived the crash, but never raced again.   

Shortly after the race, Dori married Johnny F. Martin, Chief Test Pilot for Douglas Aircraft.  The couple moved to Muroc, California in the Mojave Desert,  where the Muroc  Dry Lake (now Edwards Air Force Base) was used for flight testing.  Eventually, they moved to Beverly Hills where they enjoyed the Hollywood life style.  The Martins built a home in Rolling Hills and started their family.   Dori became a stay-at-home mom, den mother,  and little league cheerleader for her  two young sons, Richard Joseph and Michael James.  

Eventually, she completed night school courses and earned her real estate license.  She then went to work for Wagenseller & Durst Securities Corporation,  managing high-rise office buildings in downtown LA.    When the couple  separated,  Dori and her sons moved to South Pasadena.  

After a fall, a long rehab ended Dori’s career in real estate management.  She called it the toughest time in her life--  caring for her parents, her sons and, as she described it,  she was “very, very broke.”  She pulled herself up by her bootstraps and worked her way back by working the graveyard shift at the US Post Office, sorting mail.   As she later remembered, “I’d eat lunch at three o’clock in the morning in my car in the rain.  I got through it.“ It took her six years.

 Later in her life, she began traveling, spending time with friends in Europe and the US.   On a short visit to Sun City West, Arizona, she decided to stay for a while--which turned into twenty-seven years.  Just a quick bus trip to Las Vegas, Dori loved the area, and continued to ‘enjoy the ride,’ entering and winning blackjack tournaments,  making new friends, and swimming year round. 

In 2001, Wings Across America was privileged to interview Dori at her home in Arizona.  She was a charming, warm, beautiful lady.  During the interview, when  asked what her favorite airplane was, she didn’t hesitate. 

“The B-26.  Some of the men didn’t want to fly it.  They wouldn’t fly it, but I loved it!   The reason I loved it is because it was a real airplane.  You had to fly it.  You couldn’t just sit there like somebody’s grandmother,.... The B-26 was a wonderful plane.”

Just after her service as a WASP, Dori agreed to pose for a picture.  It is fitting to include it here.  

When asked what her favorite word was, she couldn’t pick just one:   “I’d say horses, airplanes, men,  and parties--not necessarily in that order.”

From horsewoman,  to Hollywood starlet, to WASP, Dori Marland Martin was truly one-of-a-kind. Forever the ingenue,  this  actress, model, horsewoman,  and pilot was a true patriot.  She could have stayed in Hollywood and ‘acted’ her way through World War II.  Instead, she learned to fly so that she could serve her country as a WASP.    She dined at the finest Sunset Strip restaurants and lived in the hills overlooking Hollywood, she modeled mink coats and ostrich feathered hats, and she flew the B-26 bomber--nicknamed the  ‘Widowmaker.‘   Her life was a testament to patriotism, hard work, persistence,  and turning set-backs into step-ups.   When she needed to, she made her way through, and she always did it with a smile.

A ceremony celebrating Dori's life will be held at Freedom Inn, Assisted living Residence, in Sun City West, AZ, on May 15, 2013, at 9:30 a.m.   

Memorial donations may be made in Dori's honor to Wings Across America,  the National WASP WWII Museum, or to Sun Cities 4 Paws Rescue, Inc.

God bless those whose lives she touched -- and will touch.

v/r written and posted by Nancy Parrish
Based on Wings Across America’s interview

Edith Smith Beal, 44-W-7 | April 24, 2013

Edith was born on July 15, 1916, in Kirkland, N.Y., the daughter of W. Carlton and Edith F. Munger Smith. She graduated from Buffalo State Teacher's College and studied Art at Pratt Institute.

After teaching for three years and learning to fly an airplane,   In 1944 Edith applied for and was accepted into a flying training program to teach female pilots to fly military aircraft.  She then paid her way to the flying training base at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.  She was one of ninety-eight young women pilots who became  members of class 44-W-7.

Edith was one of only fifty-nine trainees who successfully completed the seven months of military flight training. On September 8, 1944, Edith graduated and received her silver WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) wings.  After graduation, she was assigned to Eagle Pass Army Air Base, Eagle Pass, Texas.  While at Eagle Pass, Edith flew AT-6’s for Advanced Gunnery School, towing targets to train cadets in gunnery training.

During her service at Eagle Pass, Edith met Flight Instructor Donald Ivan Beal, from South Portland, Maine. The couple began dating and, after the WASP were disbanded, they were married on Feb. 10, 1945. Together they raised their four children and operated Sandy Cove Cottages for over twenty years,  before retiring to Florida to enjoy their ‘golden years’. During those years, Edith took up her artist's brush again, painting in water-colors.

Edith  passed away on April 24, 2013 at her home after a short illness.

She was a member of the First Congregational UCC Church of Bridgton, Maine.   She was predeceased by her parents,  her husband of fifty-three years,  a sister (Frances Adams),  and a brother (Charles Munger Smith).  She is survived by her four children:   Kathy Bartke and husband Hal;  Carol Riley;   Jon Beal and wife Hope;  Nat Beal and companion,  Jane;  thirteen grandchildren;  and eleven great-grandchildren.

A memorial service to honor  Edith’s  life was held at First Congregational Church in Bridgton, Maine on Monday, May 13, at 5 p.m.

Donations in Edith’s memory may be made to the Donald I. Beal Memorial Fund of Bridgton Scholarship Foundation.


v/r re-posted by Nancy Parrish  from official obit  (WASP content added) 

Hazel Pracht Caldwell, 43-W-4 Feb. 3, 2013

On February 3,  2013, America said farewell to another  of its courageous, patriotic World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots,  (WASP) Hazel Wilfred Pracht Caldwell.

Florine Phillips Maloney, 44-W-4 April 3, 2013

“If I had my ‘druthers’,  I’d rather be in an airplane, but sailing is very close to it.  I like to say that I traded my wings for sails.”    Florine Phillips Maloney

On April 3, 2013,  WASP  Florine Phillips Maloney (WASP, 44-4)  traded her ‘sails’  for her final pair of ‘wings’.   

Florine was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 14, 1920, the second of three children.  She described her childhood as a happy one, raised by a single mother and surrounded by an extended family of cousins. 

During high school, Florine became interested in journalism, working on the school paper and her high school yearbook.  Following graduation, she entered the University of Chicago but soon transferred to a business college. Upon  completing the coursework there,  she became a steno typist and eventually worked for American Airlines as a reservation agent on the midnight to eight am shift. 

With just a little encouragement from her brother, who was in pilot training with the Army Air Forces following his attendance at West Point,   Florine began taking flying lessons at a small airport near her home.  Eventually,  American Airlines transferred her to Love Field, Dallas, Texas.  It was there that she heard the word “WASP” for the first time.  After discovering what it meant, she immediately applied to enter the flight training program required to become a WASP and was accepted. 

She arrived at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas on November 1, 1943, together with 103 other hopeful young women pilots.  Less than 2 months after arriving for training, she was granted leave for 48 hours to travel to Love Field to marry Lt. Robert Mancib.  

After seven months of Army Air Force flight training, she and 51 of her classmates graduated on May 23, 1944 and received their silver WASP wings.  Proudly in attendance at her graduation: her mother, her  brother (an Army Air Force pilot), and her sister, Rosalie, marching in review as a member of class 44-W-9.  

Florine’s Army orders sent her to Love Field, Dallas, Texas, where she was assigned to fly with the Fifth Ferrying Group.  She ferried AT-6’s from the factory to training bases and points of embarkation. She was transferred to Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, where she primarily flew AT-10’s as an administrative pilot.   Her most vivid memory of her flying assignments there was flying a Norden Norseman,  fitted out as a hospital transport,  to San Antonio with a soldier in traction, attended by nurses and doctors.  

After the WASP were deactivated, Florine, now divorced, joined her sister, Rosalie,  and applied to the American Red Cross for duty overseas.  The two sisters spent almost two years in Naples, Italy, running the American Red Cross Club Division.  

 After returning to the States, she met and married Tom Carley.  As Florine later remembered, “We had a lot in common.  He had an airplane and I had wings.”    They had two children:  Keith Maxwell Carley and Laura Phillips Carley.  Soon after their tenth anniversary, Tom passed away.  While raising their children and finishing the house they had started building, Florine married Howard Scaife and became a step mom to his two children.  Following Howard’s death,  Florine became quite a sailor, sailing to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Tahiti, and eventually to Guatemala.  

After returning to the States, Florine  fell in love and married another sailor, Mac Maloney, who was a retired Marine Colonel and successful author.  She spent many of her last years copy- editing  Mac’s book,  “Chapman’s Piloting”,  the ‘Small Boater’s Bible’. 

The last few years found Florine and Mac living near the water and enjoying  trips on their  38’ trawler named ‘Leeway.’   

Surrounded by many challenges in her life, Florine always remained positive:   “I guess I’ve always known that God was gonna take care of me...and He has!    When I think of some of the scrapes I’ve gotten through, it’s a miracle!”

Florine was a member of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) in both  Illinois and Florida.  She was also the proud holder of Ham Radio License N4CGG.

In May of 2003, we were privileged to interview Florine in her home in Pompano Beach, Florida.  During our brief visit, we took a picture of she and Mac in front of their beautiful  boat, which was less than a block from their home.  This picture truly represents  how we remember her:   holding Mac’s hand, happy, smiling, proudly standing as tall as she could, despite the physical challenges.  

Florine Phillips Maloney:  a unique, one-of-a-kind sailor/WASP is now truly flying higher than she has ever flown before.  

God bless all whose lives she has touched and will touch.  

v/r written and posted by Nancy Parrish

from the video interview with Florine Maloney,  May 4, 2003

*Photos from the Wings Across America archive

Lois Maxine Dobbin Auchterlonie, 43-W-8 March 24, 2013

Lois Maxine Dobbin Auchterlonie, 43-W-8

Lois Maxine Dobbin was born April 14, 1917 on a farm East of Viola,  Kansas to Thomas M and Alma R. Dobbin.  She grew up in Wichita, Kansas.   

Lois graduated from East High in Wichita, Kansas and later attended Wichita State University, where she was President of the Delta-Omega Sorority in her senior year.   

In 1941, while still enrolled in college,  she had the opportunity to take the CPT (Civilian Pilot Training) program.  After earning her Bachelor's Degree and her civilian private pilot's license,  she went to work at Boeing’s Stearman Plant in Wichita.  It was there she heard about the WASP program to train women pilots to fly military aircraft.

Lois applied and was accepted for military flight training in class 43-8. In 1943, she paid her way to Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, to enter the Army Air Force training program for women pilots.   Of the 95 women pilots who entered class 43-8,  Lois was one of only 48 who successfully completed the six months of training and graduated.  

After earning her silver WASP wings, Lois received her official AAF orders,  sending her  to Williams Field, Arizona for duty as an AT-6 engineering test pilot.   During her career as a WASP, Lois flew the PT-17, PT-19, BT-13, AT-6, UC-78, AT-9 AND AT-11.  Her dedication and service, together with that of the other Women Airforce Service Pilots,  released hundreds of the Army Air Forces desperately needed male military pilots for combat duty. 

After the WASP were deactivated, Lois built a career around aviation-related jobs:   working at flight schools; writing pilot flight manuals at North American (AJ-1 and XA25-1); working as a secretary for an aircraft parts service company in Wichita;  and eventually working for over thirty years  as a technical editor and proposal coordinator for Raytheon in Massachusetts.

In 1981, Lois became a charter member of the Women Military Aviators (WMA), an organization that included both WASP and other women military pilots.  She helped write the original by-laws and continued networking with members from  various flying branches of the military for many years.

Lois enjoyed flying her own Cherokee 180 for over twenty years.  She was very active in the Ninety Nines (international civilian women pilots) organization,  and helped manage the All-Women New England Air Race for several years.  She flew co-pilot in the 1961 Powder Puff Derby from Calgary,  Canada to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and In 1972, Lois entered and won the All-Women New England Air Race. 

Lois met her husband, Charles Auchterlone in college.  Later,  they married and made their home in Acton, Massachusetts until Charles retired.  In 1987   the couple moved to Anacortes, Washington.  They were married for 32 years.

After she lost her husband, Lois spent her time fostering cats needing new homes, as well as serving as the volunteer treasurer at the church thrift shop and treasurer for a church women's group.  She remained active in the local community club as well as playing a few rounds of golf.  However, she referred to attending the WASP and WMA reunions as "The highlight of my year."

In 2010, Lois, together with her sister WASP, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her service as a pilot during World War II.  

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Lois passed away peacefully on March 24, 2013 following a fall at her home in Snohomish Washington. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband,  and her brother.  She is survived by brother-in-law, Kenneth Auchterlonie and numerous nieces and nephews.  

A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 pm, April 20, 2013 at Evergreen Funeral Home, 4504 Broadway in Everett. 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Animal Shelter of your choice.

v/r posted by nancy parrish

from Betty Turner's "Out of the Blue and Into History" p. 267 and Byrd Granger's "On Final Approach."  

Photo from the Wings Across America digital archive.