Betty and the WASPs

Elizabeth Strohfus, known as Betty Wall during her time with the military, served as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) from 1943 to 1944. The WASPs were a group of 1,074 women, all with prior piloting experience, employed to fly military aircraft by the United States Air Force. It was created by combining two previously assembled groups, the WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment) and WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) in 1943. The formation of WASP took place to allow male pilots to focus more on combat roles, while the female pilots delivered aircraft from factories to military bases and towed drones and aerial targets.

Elizabeth Strohfus first took flight shortly after high school, when a member of the school’s “Sky Club” took her to the skies in a Piper Cub. She immediately fell in love with flight. From that moment on, she spent her free time volunteering with the Sky Club, doing everything she could in order to fly with the members.

Sure enough, after months of hard work while waiting for her opportunity, a member of the Sky Club enlisted in the Air Force. Betty was rewarded for her dedication and was invited to become a member of the Club. At the Club, she came across a notice inviting women to apply for military pilot positions in order to free up male pilots for combat roles. More than 25,000 applied, and Elizabeth was one of the 1,800 women accepted.

During her time as an active WASP, Elizabeth flew B-17s, B-26s, P-39s and AT-6s. In addition to ferrying aircraft, Elizabeth flew anti-aircraft training missions in an AT-6 against US Army ground and bomber forces. She also responded to a call for instrument instructors, for which she was accepted and sent back to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas to instruct male cadets in the skill of instrument flight.

t-6-texan

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North American T-6 Texan (AT-6 variant) in Georgetown, TX

After WASP was disbanded in 1944, Elizabeth worked a number of jobs, from aircraft communicator to working for the American Cancer Society. She got married and raised a family in Faribault, Minnesota until her husband passed away in 1972. She then moved to Boston, where she played a key role in lobbying for the members of WASP to be recognized as veterans. In 1977, the law was signed and passed, declaring that those that served in WASP were, in fact, military veterans. In 2010, Elizabeth, along with the other surviving WASPs, were invited to the United States Capitol to accept a Congressional Gold Medal.

At age 72, Elizabeth was still flying B-26s, and actually pulled 6Gs in an F-16. She spent her older years traveling across the United States, speaking with children all over about her time as a pilot. She passed away on March 6, 2016 in her hometown of Faribault, Minnesota at age 96.

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