'We came to serve': Women did their part in World War II
Memorial Day eventsHere are some of the special events at area cemeteries today:
* Greenwood Cemetery , 6231 W. 47th St. South, 11 a.m. to noon, featuring the Navy Operations Support Center Wichita Color Guard and speaker Greg Smith of Central Community Church.
A U.S. Airforce flyover is scheduled for 11:30.
* Resthaven, 11800 W. Kellogg, 11 a.m. A flyover by a KC-135 tanker from McConnell Air Force Base is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. A presentation by the Jayhawk Wing of the Commemorative Air Force is scheduled for 11:45 a.m.
Featured speakers are Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, and Col. Jamie Crowhurst, commander of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell.
* Lakeview Cemetery, 12100 E. 13th, 10 a.m.
The McConnell Air Force Base Honor Guard will participate, with a flyover by F-16s from the Air Force 138th Fighter Wing in Tulsa.
Wichitan Betty Eaton joined after a cousin was shot down over Germany. Mary Ellen Mock of Eureka enlisted to make her dad proud.
Meriem Anderson, also of Eureka, put on a uniform because she wanted to serve her country. Wichitan Hope Leighton also wanted to serve — and to do something besides teach school.
Nearly 320,000 women joined the U.S. military during World War II, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
They served as nurses, radio technicians, bookkeepers and test pilots for repaired planes. They processed mail, ferried aircraft from factories to overseas bases and worked in scores of other roles to free men to fight overseas.
They sacrificed: 432 U.S. military women were killed during WWII and 88 were held as prisoners of war, according to the Women's Research and Education Institute.
Women contributed to a national effort that saw schoolchildren saving their money to buy government stamps so they could trade them for government bonds.
"It was understood that everyone pitches in," Leighton said. "That's just the way it was."
Women served in the military with very little fanfare or recognition. Not that they were looking for either.
"That's not why we were there," said Eaton, whose father fought in World War I. "We came to serve."
Many of those women have been lost to the years, their stories either faded or never told.
So today, Memorial Day, let's pause and hear their stories:
Betty Eaton was 19 in July 1943 when she got the news about her cousin, Lt. Donald Winters of Valley Center.
Usaf Eye Sight For Pilots - News
The two-day trip was particularly important for Betty to take now, because her eyesight is quickly fading. "It was very evident when making the tours up there that we weren't forgotten," she said. "People would come up and say 'thank you.
When Linquist was 54, he started to experience problems with his eyesight, and retired to Fairfield Bay, Ark. Linquist and his wife moved to Detroit Lakes a little more than a year ago to be closer to family. The veteran is living proof that time heals
Already the US Air Force is training more remote pilots—350 this year alone—than fighter and bomber pilots combined. “It's a growth market,” said Ashton B. Carter, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer. The Pentagon has asked Congress for nearly $5
Miller learned to fly in the Air Force as an enlisted man. Stationed at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, he borrowed money from the credit union for lessons at the base flying club. "A Cessna 150 was six dollars an hour, wet.
Air force recruits part-timers - national | Stuff.co.nz
The air force is calling up an active reserve, including former pilots, to help to keep its planes in the air.
It is also relaxing stringent eyesight tests for all trainee pilots. Air force chief Graham Lintott said the active reserve was being set up to help overcome problems with recruiting and retaining staff.
"One of the ideas that came out was that one of the ways of retaining people was to make use of people who had left but would still like to contribute."
He said that most of those joining the active reserve would serve for between one and three months every year, though some could sign up for a year or longer.The air force was particularly keen to get experienced former RNZAF tradespeople, pilots and flying instructors.
"Although the scheme has only been running a month we have already signed up or given offers of service to six or seven squadron-leader-ranked qualified flying-instructor pilots."
Most were former Orion, Hercules and King Air pilots who were now working for Air New Zealand.
Air Vice-Marshal Lintott said these people were coming back via the active reserve because "they love the air force and want to still be part of it".
"Most don't leave because they don't like it - they leave because of job opportunities, for family reasons or because it pays more."
He did not envisage the active reserve running its own squadrons, but he expected reservists would be doing more than occasional stopgap work. They could be particularly useful in training, rather than in operational flights.
The air force has 2990 staff - 320 more than it had three years ago - which Air Vice-Marshal Lintott said was a good effort given the tight employment market during that period.
It had helped lift numbers with "lateral" recruiting from overseas air forces and a $1000 "recruit a friend" bonus for air force staff.
More than 400 names had been put up and 22 staff had scored the bonus after their friends made it through initial training.
Air Vice-Marshal Lintott said the air force's tough eyesight requirements had disqualified a lot of people.
"In the past, when you were between 17 and 24 and your eyesight was not 20/20, we didn't take you."
The air force had not been prepared to take the risk that eyesight could deteriorate quite rapidly at that age, but recent research had shown that risk could be reduced.
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