Chapter 22

Back Home

 

Mama, Eli and Ethan waited on the front porch as Emily and her father drove up the long laneway to the familiar old farmhouse. ‘I am home at last, sighed Emily!’ She jumped out of the truck and ran up the stairs to her mama’s waiting arms. The first thing mama said was that she cooked all of Emily’s favorite food for dinner, and then she told Emily that she was too thin. Emily smiled and agreed with her, she was too happy to disagree with mama about anything.

Her father followed behind with her bags. The twins excitedly fired questions after question at her about what type of military aircraft she flew as a WASP. Before she had a chance to answer the first question they asked another. Emily felt like a war hero returning from the battlefield.

Finally, her daddy intervened telling the boys to give their sister a chance to unpack, there was plenty of time to ask questions later. Eli and Ethan carried the bags to her room for her. They told her to hurry and unpack; they could not wait to ask more questions about what it was like in the WASP flying bomber and fighter planes. They wanted to know all about the P-51 Mustang as well as the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress.

Emily ascended the stairs to her old bedroom, opened the door, and flopped on her bed. She gazed around the room; nothing had changed. She never thought she would be so glad to be in the familiar surroundings of her old room again.

She stared at the ceiling as she reflected on her relationship with Gene over the last few years. As she thought back, she realized that she had not really known him. They met at the Bluebonnet Hotel, she had dinner with his family, and then he went overseas. When he returned they went out for dinner a few times. He made a halfhearted proposal and then after the war ended he proceeded to tell her what he expected her to do for the rest of her life. She was certain that she had made the right decision when she ended their relationship. Neither of them seemed overly upset about the outcome of their secret engagement, if you could call it an engagement. No one was supposed to know about it, except Gene and Emily, which was odd in Emily’s opinion. Emily felt that it was one of those wartime romances. No one was certain what the future held in store. The fighting men overseas did not know if they would live or die when they engaged in a battle. She was just his girl waiting for him back home, someone that he wrote to while he was overseas fighting the war, someone to keep his hopes alive. She was glad that her parents did not know about Gene, that way she did not have to explain what happened. Besides, she was not ready for marriage; she wanted to start her own flight business. She loved to fly; it had become a part of her life. If her business failed, she would find another way to make a living using her skills as a pilot, but she had to try to make the business work.

After clearing her mind of all her thoughts of the past, she spent several minutes enjoining the warmth of her cozy old room; finally, she dragged herself off her comfortable bed. Emily hung her severely creased WASP uniform in the closet, next to her ATA uniform. She hoped the creases would fall out after it hung for a few days, not that she was planning to wear it again. Those days were over, but she planned to keep both of the uniforms as a reminder of two of the most memorable times of her life. She was fortunate enough to serve in two of the most elite organizations for women of WWII. She was proud of her accomplishments in Britain and in the USA to help win the war.

Emily quietly walked down the stairs to the large informal sitting room at the front of the house, where over the years the family sat to listen to the radio or read the newspaper. Emily walked over to the great stone fireplace that covered most of the wall in the large comfortable room.

A snapshot of Emily in her ATA uniform standing beside a Spitfire that her friend Sarah had taken in England alongside a professional photograph of her in her WASP uniform sat on the mantle. In the middle of Emily’s photos was a high school picture of Jeremy in his football uniform. He was holding a football as though he was ready to make a pass to one of his receivers. It was daddy’s favorite picture of Jeremy; daddy was very proud of his achievements as a quarter back. The whole family watched Jeremy play football every Friday night no matter what the weather was like, rain or shine. He was the all-star quarter back in his senior year; he had won a trophy for most valuable player that year. Next to his high school photo was a gold framed picture of him in his Navy uniform. Emily picked up the picture of Jeremy and held it close to her heart. She closed her eyes fighting back the tears, and then she whispered ‘We won Jeremy, the ruthless Japanese surrendered; they paid for what they did at Pearl Harbor.’

She vowed that one day she would visit Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to lay a wreath on his watery grave. The USS Arizona still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor with the eleven hundred or more officers and crewmembers that died on the dreadful day. Jeremy was one of them.

Emily carefully returned the photo to the mantle. She took a deep breath and went to join her family on the front porch. They all chatted about what had happened at the farm while Emily was away. Everyone asked Emily questions about the types of military aircraft that she flew as a WASP. The twins were excited to hear that she flew the P-51 Mustang fighter plane, but they were in awe when she told them that she also flew four-engine bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress as well as the B-29 Superfortress. Mama let out a gasp at the information as she handed Emily a glass of ice tea with lemon. Daddy told her the news about Virgil, Mabel’s son. He had become a pilot with a squadron of Negro men that they trained at Tuskegee, Alabama called the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd fighter group. They flew P-40 pursuits and later P-51 Mustangs in Italy. They were also called the ‘Red Tails’ because they painted the tails of the P-51 pursuits crimson red.

“This war certainly has changed a lot of things,” remarked Emily’s dad.

Emily added, “Who would have thought that women would fly military aircraft a few years ago?”

Mama asked, “Were there any colored girls who flew airplanes in the WASP?”

“No,” answered Emily. “One colored girl applied, but she was turned down because there were no separate sleeping facilities for Negros.”

We did have two Chinese American women pilots, Maggie Gee of Berkeley, California and Hazel Ying Lee of Portland, Oregon. Maggie Gee was a tow target pilot at Las Vegas Army Field for a flexible gunnery school.

Hazel Ying Lee went to China in 1933 to join the Chinese Air Force when the Japanese where attacking China, but the Chinese Air Force would not accept a woman pilot. She returned to the USA and then later in 1943 she joined the WASP.

All of the pilots in the WASP liked Hazel; she had a great sense of humor and made everyone laugh when she told the story of the day that she had to make a force landing due to mechanical difficulties. She landed on a wheat field in Kansas, where she came face to face with a famer pointing a pitchfork at her; he chased her around her aircraft several times. He kept yelling to his neighbors, who had shown up to see the airplane that had landed in the field, that the Japanese had invaded Kansas. She finally stopped running and confronted him explaining that she was not Japanese, that she was Chinese American, a pilot for the Women Airforce Service Pilots of the USA. He finally put the pitchfork down. Everyone laughed, but mama said that she would not know if a person were Chinese or Japanese if she met one. Emily agreed, saying most Americans probably could not tell the difference.

Emily purposely omitted the part that Hazel Ying Lee had died delivering a P-63 fighter aircraft to Great Falls, Montana. It happened when several P-63 airplanes had lined up that day waiting for landing clearance; there was a mix-up of instructions coming from the tower. Hazel collided head-on with another P-63 aircraft as they approached the landing strip from opposite directions. Both aircraft burst into flames on impact. The rescue crew pulled Hazel from the burning aircraft, but she died a few days later due to the severity of the burns. It was November 25, 1944, less than one month before the WASP disbanded. Emily did not feel that her mother needed to know about all of the crashes of the various types of aircraft that took the lives of thirty-eight WASP over the last few years. Emily had a few narrow escapes herself, but she managed to come through it unscathed, maybe she had a guardian angel looking out for her; perhaps it was her brother Jeremy. Some of the pilots believed that Fifinella, the good gremlin, took care of the WASP in life-threatening situations. Some of the women felt like they had nine lives as a cat was supposed to have.

As if on cue, the twins changed the subject letting loose with more questions, but this time they wanted to know what type of airplane Emily was going to buy to deliver parcels for her flight business. Daddy had obviously read the letter to them that she had written about starting a flight business. Her dad was always her strongest supporter; of course, the twins thought that anything their big sister, Emmy did was perfect in their eyes. Mama worried all the time, especially since Jeremy died, she could not imagine losing another child. Emily understood that her mother’s concern was out of love for her, but she had to make her own decisions; flying airplanes was what she wanted to do with her life. Emily was a careful pilot; she did not race or try to break speed records, she had learned a long time ago to be cautious and follow her flight instructor’s rules. Mama still had a difficult time excepting the fact that Emily was an accomplished pilot and had no interest in becoming a schoolteacher.