Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Pioneering pilots revisit high-flying WWII days

By Kelley Bouchard kbouchard@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009
They made history when they flew planes with the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II.

On Tuesday, three Maine women made history again when they met for the first time to reminisce about their experiences as fearless patriots and unintentional trailblazers.

Phyllis Paradis, 90, of Bass Harbor and Betty Brown, 86, of Skowhegan gathered for lunch at the home of Edith Beal, 93, on Sandy Cove Road near Long Lake.

They are among the more than 1,000 women who served in the WASP program, flying noncombat military missions stateside so male pilots could serve overseas. About 300 WASPs are living today, and Paradis, Brown and Beal are believed to be the only ones living in Maine.

''Our job was to take the place of the fellas, '' said Brown, who only recently gave up her pilot's license.

Paradis, a test pilot, flew utility cargo planes after they were repaired. Brown and Beal flew advanced trainer planes that hauled midair targets a mere 75 feet to the rear, giving bomber pilots something to shoot at.

''It was live ammunition, '' Beal said, unfazed. ''You were just doing your job.''

For decades, the WASP program's contribution to the war effort went largely unrecognized. In 1979, the secretary of the Air Force granted military recognition and veteran status to the pilots. In July, President Obama signed a bill that awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the women.

Tuesday's meeting was arranged by David Harville, 59, a retired history teacher who lives in Skowhegan and taught at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport. Harville met Brown at their local recreation center and decided to organize the luncheon. The three women jumped at the chance.

Paradis left Mount Desert Island at 5 a.m. Tuesday to drive to Skowhegan and meet Brown and Harville. He drove Paradis and Brown to Beal's home. When they arrived, the three women embraced and immediately started talking and swapping photographs. Harville watched with pride and wonder from across the room.

''There aren't many of these gals around anymore, '' Harville said. ''To get them in one room today ... the past just comes alive.''

As they shared memories, the three women proved themselves to be atypical great-grandmothers. They chatted excitedly about twin engines and retractable landing gear, rattlesnakes hiding in cockpits and tough GIs turning weak as soon as they were airborne.

''They'd all get sick, '' said Paradis, whose name was Phyllis Johnson when she was a WASP.

The WASP operated as civilian support to the Army Air Force from September 1942 through December 1944. In that period, about 25,000 women applied, 1,830 were accepted and 1,074 graduated from its seven-month training program, according to a WASP pamphlet. Thirty-eight died while in service.

Paradis, who grew up in Saylesville, R.I., entered the force in 1943, when she was 25. Before volunteering for the program, she had a state government job setting up a computer system.

Beal, formerly Edith Smith, grew up in rural Deansboro, N.Y. She was 27 and working as a teacher when she entered the program in January 1944.

Brown, formerly Betty Overman, grew up in Detroit. She also entered in January 1944, leaving behind an office job at a General Motors diesel engine plant.

At 20, Brown was actually too young to be accepted to the program, so she found a typewriter at the GM plant that had the same style as her birth certificate and altered her birth date to make herself 21. She worried that her trick would get her in trouble, but the age limit soon dropped to 20.

All three women were pilots before they became WASPs, and all three trained for the program at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. They stayed in military-style barracks that offered few comforts. Twelve women shared a bathroom that had one mirror, for instance.

When they graduated and got their wings, fellow WASPs tossed them in an outdoor fountain at the airfield. The training was challenging but fun.

''I had a guy in primary training that liked to fly upside down better than rightside up, '' Brown said. ''He was wonderful at acrobatics, and I truly think that's the way to learn the feel of a plane.''

Once assigned to duty, the women served three or four months. Paradis was stationed at Greenville, Miss. Her job called for testing every function of newly repaired utility cargo planes, which included cutting one engine to see how the other would operate in an emergency.

''It was really fun, '' Paradis said. ''It was a workout, but it was fun.''

Both trainers, Beal was stationed at Eagle Pass, Texas, near the Rio Grande, and Brown was stationed at Aloe Army Air Field, near Houston.

Although the women heard rumors of WASPs being harassed by enlisted men, they experienced little of that themselves. Sometimes, they said, older commanding officers had trouble dealing with women serving in the war effort, even as civilian support staff.

But most of the younger servicemen were respectful and supportive, especially when they encountered WASPs at an officers club or a local movie theater.

''They wanted to talk to a woman, especially with all those men around, '' Paradis said.

It's not surprising, then, that all three women married pilots they met when they were WASPs, or soon after. All three were homemakers and now have several children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Beal's late husband, Donald, was a South Portland native who brought her to Bridgton after the war. Brown and her husband, Ronald, moved here in 1970.

Paradis, who was married briefly before the war, settled in Massachusetts afterward with her second husband, the late Richard Strauss. They spent summers in Bass Harbor before retiring there about 15 years ago. She married a third time and is now widowed.

Looking back on their service, the women are as proud of their contribution as they are dismissive of it being anything extraordinary.

''We wanted to do something for the war effort, '' Brown said. ''It was something that we loved to do.''