Commentary: A highlight in women’s history

link U.S. Air Force Graphic: Airman 1st Class Shelby Kay-Fantozzi

27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

The theme of Women's History Month 2014 is "Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment." Women here and now make headlines for being unapologetically daring, capable, selfless, intelligent and honorable.

Women's history is an important observance for both women and men; both benefit from learning that a long and rich heritage connects today's military women to our roots. Centuries ago, when the boundaries, people, and ideals of the United States were new, women who wanted to fight for their country posed as men and fought for what they believed.

The status of these women has evolved to that of legend. We have only their stories, few names and no living faces to which we might connect the tales of women who fought alongside their husbands and brothers. These women treated their own wounds rather than being discovered by a doctor and were buried as men after fighting in disguise.

When observing our history, it is rewarding to engage with women who have stories still in progress, people whose participation in the war effort took place over half a century in the past and whose fight for recognition stretched three generations back and into the present.

One example is the Women Airforce Service Pilots. They completed domestic missions, freeing up male pilots for combat missions during WWII.

The WASP, led by aviator Jackie Cochran and supported by the likes of Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold and Eleanor Roosevelt, performed such tasks as towing targets for anti-aircraft gunnery exercises, ferrying aircraft from factories to bases, serving as test pilots and instructing new male and female pilots.

When Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., was known as Clovis Army Air Field, WASP here copiloted in B-17 Flying Fortresses, flew UC-78 Bobcats on twilight weather checks and even, flew a B-29 Superfortress with an exclusively female crew.

In 1944, two WASPs, Dr. Dora Jean Dougherty Strother McKeown and Dorothea Johnson Moorman, were chosen to fly the B-29 from Birmingham, Ala., to Clovis, N.M. Their flight was designed to disprove the Superfortress's reputation as an unsafe and ungainly aircraft.

After a long-fought battle in Congress, they were awarded full veteran's status in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

Each achievement of military women today is a step forward, and every step forward merits a look into the past. Everyone has something to gain from observing women's history and supporting future progress.