Elizabeth L. Gardner

[Phil Perry]

 

Elizabeth L. Gardner, age 22, WASP pilot, at the controls of a B-26 Marauder, during World War II.

 

One of the first WASPs, she was a trained test and instructor pilot. After the War, she had a long career in aviation, both as a commercial pilot and as a much more dangerous test pilot.

 

Part of her work was testing parachutes for aircraft (a parachute for the whole aircraft, not just the pilot). On both of the tests she did for this equipment, the aircraft parachute failed, forcing her to bail out. She died in 2011, at the age of 90.

 

During World War II, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (the follow-on organization to the earlier Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS)), towed aerial targets, ferried aircraft, and performed test flights, freeing men for combat duty. Just over 1,000 of these pioneering women flew over 60 million miles in all types of military aircraft. Thirty-eight of these women lost their lives in service to their country, and one,

 

Gertrude Tompkins, disappeared while on a ferry mission, her fate still unknown.

Although performing a military mission, the WASPs were seen as civilians — they did not gain status as US Veterans until 1977.