My choice for this theme is the graduation photograph taken when my Aunt Gail Sigford graduated with the Lost Last Class of Avenger Field, Women Air Service Pilot (WASP) Class, 44-W-10. Although there were a few smiling faces, there was not much reason for smiles from this group of young women. A letter sent out by General H.H.(Hap) Arnold on 1944 October 1, "To Each Member of the WASP:" notifying the WASP that as of 1944 December 20 the the WASP program was deactivated and they were all released. Their "volunteered services were no longer needed" and they would now be "replacing rather than releasing our young men." This last WASP class finished their training and were released, as were all the other WASP -- most to find and pay for their own way home. Even so, my aunt always maintained, as did most of the WASP, that her time as a WASP was a defining moment in how she viewed herself and how and what she was capable of doing and becoming -- beyond her wildest dreams. She was only twenty-two years old on that graduation day.
 |
| Graduation of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, Class 44-W-10 Graduation Date, December 7, 1944 Courtesty of the Archives of Roots'n'Leaves and JGHill |
 | |
| List and position for graduates in the above photograph of WASP Class 44-W-10 Graduates Courtesty of the Archives of Roots'n'Leaves and JGHill |
I would have like to have seen her receive that Congressional Gold Medal -- though it would not have meant as much to her as the memories of the year she was a WASP.
 |
| Gail G. Sigford, WASP December 1944 Courtesty of the Archives of Roots'n'Leaves and JGHill |
~ ~ ~
© Joan G. Hill, Roots'n'Leaves
Publications
A lovely portrait of your aunt, and she does seem to be smiling in the group photograph too, although it's a little hard to see as it doesn't enlarge clearly. Do you mean that while Gail enjoyed her training, she and the rest of her class were never required to serve as Wasps thereafter? What waste of women power!
ReplyDeleteActually it was worse than just her class not having the opportunity to serve, but at 12:01, December 20, 1944 every WASP was deactivated. Where ever they were, they had to find/pay for their own way home. Some bases found them seats on military transports, others showed them to the gate. There was a major lobby in Congress that wanted the WASP deactivated for fear that the women would take flying jobs from the men. Indeed, a waste --- and a costly waste at that, for at least 6 months there weren't men trained for the jobs that the women did.
ReplyDeleteThat was just wrong and so unfair, not to mention a waste in so many ways.
DeleteThat made me think of "Who Moved My Cheese?."
ReplyDeleteI agree - that is such a lovely portrait of your Aunt Gail, but how dreadfully the WASPs were treated at the end. I knew nothing abut the Womens' Air Force Pilots so thank you for featuring them here.
ReplyDeleteFamily History Fun
Lovely portrait of your aunt! And this is an interesting (and heartbreaking) bit of history, as well. Thanks for writing a great post.
ReplyDeleteQuick aside on the topic of smiling for the camera: when I was in middle school, I was a photographer for the yearbook staff--just a little point-and-shoot camera, nothing fancy. That's a cheeky age for kids, so when I'd go for candids, quite often I'd either get flipped off or hands covering faces, neither of which could be used in the yearbook. That's when I made a decision that has served me well ever since: when someone points a camera at me, I smile at it!
All I can say is - what an awful way to treat people who obviously filled an important need when there was one, but were then simply 'dumped' when the need no longer existed. In this country women who took jobs working in the factories during the war were let down a little easier but still found themselves out of factory jobs when the war ended. Many did remain working however in clerical & secretarial jobs rather than return to being housewives which was quite a change in the overall workforce of the country.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm...when did WASP stop referring to those wonderful women and start being associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants?
ReplyDeleteThat was interesting. We have heard so much about the women pilots in Britain during the war that I hadn't heard that a similar program was set up in America. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post and you have done Gail a great service with this tribute.
ReplyDeleteYou can more or less date the introduction of a smile into formal portraits to shortly after the popularization of, paradoxically, amateur photography in the early 20th century. I find that those Second World War portraits individually of men and women in uniform all have a very similar feel to them. Perhaps it's the uniform, perhaps the smile, or perhaps something else.
ReplyDelete