Pearl Harbor: Remembering Cornelia Fort
I know that this is a late story, but I think that it is worth a mention. I want to talk about Cornelia Fort. The quick version is that on the day of the attack she was flying with a student on his last flight before the students’ first solo flight. She was able to rescue the student and aircraft by her quick thinking and piloting. She later became a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and help transport untold number of military aircraft from the factory to various bases for use. She was killed in a crash in 1943 at the age of 24. But she is not as well known as other heros on that day. There have been several good stories about her and actions that she did that day.
As Cornelia and her student were turning to align with the runway, Cornelia saw off to the side a fighter type aircraft coming right at her and her student. Grabbing the flight controls, she pulled up sharply narrowly escaping a collision with the fast moving aircraft. Her first thoughts were of the Army Air Corps pilots who were supposed to avoid the area around John Rodgers airfield but as the aircraft flashed by her, she saw the emblem on the wing was a large red ball, the “rising sun” insignia of Japanese Empire, not the star and bar of the US Army Air Corps. As she raised her eyes to Pearl Harbor, the initial plumes of black smoke made her realize that Pearl Harbor was under attack by the Japanese.
Cornelia immediately turned to get the little Interstate Cadet on the ground. She dodged one set of bullets from at least one pass on her by another Japanese aircraft. On the ground, her and her student quickly jumped out of the plane and ran for the school’s hangar. They were strafed as they were leaving the aircraft but not hit.
But I wanted to emphasis this part for those who are not familiar with military aircraft. Cornelia Fort went against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, one of the most advanced military aircraft at the time in a Interstate Cadet and was able live to tell the tale. But here is where is gets interesting.
Depending on who you talk to, there is a very convincing argument that the aircraft used by Cornelia Fort is now currently residing Burlington, Washington. The Interstate Cadet was restored to flight status by the Heritage Flight Museum. I ran into it by pure dumb luck. I did not realize what I was seeing until I returned home to upload the photos to Wikipedia commons. Given that this is the 75th anniversary of the attack, I though that this would be a good subject to talk about. Also if you are in the Burlington, Washington feel free to drop by to see this piece of history.
Category: Historical
The WASPs certainly did their part for the war effort. Today’s SJWs will cringe when they are told the flat out truth. The WASPs were the epitome of “Free a man to fight”.
They flew thousands of flights ferrying aircraft from field to field freeing up male pilots to go to combat zones.
The US put way more time into training pilots than any other nation, and it showed, especially in the Pacific.
I think that if the WASPS did fly combat missions they would have smoked the Jap pilots from June 1942 on. They had tons more stick time than the Japs by then.
WASPs, WACs, WAVES, and WMs were an invaluable part of the war effort whose memory gets pissed on by modern SJW asswipes. Hollywood made that stupidass “girl power” movie about girls’ baseball (which managed to make the real AAGPBL look as bad as possible), but generally pretends these women–who actively served their country–didn’t exist.
My aunt who passed away last month was a WAVE in the 60s, when WAVES were still a thing. She was proud of her service, and not some bullshit “empowerment” kind of way. She was proud to have stepped up and done her part, period. And the WAVES had plenty to be proud of.
That Lost Aviators lik is outstanding. Thank you for that.
Holden
^link
Thank you for this excellent information.
There could probably be volumes written on heroic acts that day which never received any recognition.
Thanks for the article, Sporkmaster. Women like Cornelia made a lot of history that tends to be forgotten unless we all keep bringing it up.
The WASPs were so important to the war effort that they, the WAVES and WAACs should not be set aside or forgotten.
She does get an appearance in one of the all time great war pictures — Tora! Tora! Tora!, so in that respect at least she is remembered.
If I remember, the Army Women’s Museum at Fort Lee includes a display on the WASPs, and Barry Goldwater’s efforts to have them recognized as veterans. Good on ’em.
I do remember that scene, but in it, it seemed to me that the woman being portrayed was in her 40’s at least.
Now you make a note of that, Fielder.
Some pretty amazing stuff this story, thanks for the informative post and the great links!
I dont know why I had never heard that story before but it is amazing thanks.
The mobilization of America following the attacks was unbelieveable and the people that took up the challenge were more often than not, women.
They produced literally several billion tons of war materiel for the men that were locked in combat and rarely get the recognition they deserve.
Thanks for posting this, great story !!!
I remember first learning about part of her story from Tora Tora Tora, mainly dodging the Japanese that day.
They portrayed her in the movie as being an older lady, not a 21 year old.
Thanks to her and other women that stepped up and became WASPs, WACs, WAVES, and WMs during WWII.
She dodged a Zero in an Interstate Cadet. I don’t know much about her, but there’s no doubt that gal knew how to fly!
And at the time, she was a privileged young lady. Yet she gave all of that up to fly planes for the war effort.
“Dr. Rufus Fort and his wife Louise had brought up their oldest daughter to be the demure wife of a Southern gentleman. Their five children grew up in an opulent 24-room house originally built in 1815. It stood on 365 acres of land along the Cumberland River in Davidson County, Tennessee. A chauffeur drove the children to their exclusive private schools. And after Cornelia turned 19 her father presented her to society in an elaborate debutante ball, attended by hundreds.
She and 37 other brave female pilots paid the ultimate price and yet never received any military recognition.
Awesome story & awesome women!
Thanks Sporkmaster.
Thanks Sporkmaster for this story. Brave lady she was.
Too bad she couldn’t control her rebel instincts, she could have gone on to compete with some of the best!
I will always remember my high school science teacher, Grace B Mayfield. She was a wonderful teacher and was the person that gave me my first flying lesson. She was a pilot in the war, she told me of flying P-38’s over to England to help the war effort, I will never forget her and I am priviledged to have known her!
If I remember correctly, there were 5 or 6 civilian planes that were shot down by Japanese aircraft that day. She was very lucky indeed!