If you were here yesterday, you read about the Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. I promised a deeper dive into a few specific topics from this place so here we go.
I have always liked how they tell the story of America through aviation. Starting with Civil War era military reconnaissance balloons and airplanes through all the wars, the evolution of the presidential aircraft and up to the space age, the stories are plentiful.
I noticed Saturday that an effort has been made to talk about individuals and groups whose stories haven’t been told well in museums and history books until recent years. Some of you might refer to it as a term that has been in the news a lot lately called Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity.
Personally, I call it the honest and fair telling of our nation’s history.
The last time I was there, I complained that the bulk of the stories told at this museum were about white men when we know well and good that plenty of people of color and women have served bravely and with distinction. You can tell that someone with more pull than yours truly complained as well. There’s now an area that celebrates women and the extensive contributions women have made in many ways.
They highlight Blanche Stuart Scott, the first American woman to solo in an airplane. She did it in 1910. They highlight Bessie Coleman, the first black licensed pilot in the world. She had to go to Europe to get her pilot’s license because no American flying school would allow her entrance due to her race and gender. That was in 1921. Incidentally, women had just won the right to vote a couple of years before that.
Then there’s the Women Airforce Service Pilots program (WASP) which gave us 1,830 women who enthusiastically signed up to ferry planes from factories to air force bases. Of them, Ann Baumgartner Carl was the first woman to fly a jet aircraft, fighting the stigma that women aren’t capable of handling such a plane.
Then there was Ola Rexroat, the only Native American to join the WASP. She was an Ogla Sioux who transported cargo and personnel and was one of the many women to tow aerial gunnery targets. That’s right. She towed targets for soldiers who we hoped had good aim when they fired in her direction. Tell me a woman like that doesn’t deserve a spot in this museum.
In more recent history, you’ll find Captain Kim “Killer Chick” Campbell who received the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor for her heroism during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She went on to be Colonel Campbell.
Throughout the museum, there are nods to the heroic women who were pioneers as Korean War flight nurses, who lost their lives in Operation Babylift, and who flew higher as astronauts. While there’s not much detail about any of them, there’s enough to inspire little girls and middle aged women to think that dreaming sky high is still something we should all do.
It means a lot to see someone who is like you represented in a place like this. Especially when you know that there are many others like them out there just waiting to have their stories told. And of course, this is no knock against men but it’s a good reminder that women make up half the world and that they are doing their fair share to hold up their part.
