Zara has been in #Nome, #Alaska, for 13 days now and we are still dancing and swirling to the weather gods for some #clemency… ❄️☃️🌨🌤☀️⭐️
Meanwhile, let us tell you about Nome. Did you know this remote town, played a crucial role during WWII?
In March 1941 President Roosevelt signed the LEND-LEASE ACT with the Allies trying to avoid shipping war equipment via the Pacific Ocean. Instead, between ’42 and ’45 more than 8000 aircraft where shuttled through Nome to the Soviet Union, an ally against the Nazi regime.
Ferry pilots, including US women pilots of the #WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots), picked up the ✈️ at the Bell factory at Niagara Falls, New York and flew them to Great Falls, Montana. Once there, the female ferry #pilots, handed off the #planes to male pilots who flew the aircraft on across Canada to Alaska. Soviet pilots, many of them women, would take delivery of the aircraft at Fairbanks and Nome and fly them, via the Alaska-Siberia route, over the Bering Strait to the Soviet Union front.
WASP pilots had taken up aviator positions in the US Air Force in order to free up the male pilots for combat duties. They ferried aircraft, were test pilots but also took over tow-target (✈️🎯😳😬) and tracking mission flying. The last are considered to be a couple of the most difficult and tedious jobs for pilots in the air force.
History 📚 unfortunately forgot the importance of the WASP and the Soviet Women Pilots.
And, “While there is no evidence that women pilots flew the Alaska-Siberia leg of the Lend-Lease flights from Great Falls, Montana, to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, their contributions toward victory were enormous. Over the course of the war, the WASP delivered essential battle planes from their point of manufacture to Great Falls and to other locations. The efforts and the determination of many WASP to place themselves on equal footing with male pilots set the foundation for the enhanced rights that women enjoy in American society today. (…)
This will serve as #inspiration to future generations so that they can know of these women’s dedication, perseverance, and ultimate acts of #heroism. Thanks to the novel efforts of these brave women, our daughters and granddaughters are freer to pursue their dreams and fully develop their talents. The WASP and Soviet women pilots of World War II paved the way for girls and young women to know that whatever their goals and aspirations, The Sky’s the Limit.”
#equalopportunity #Seeitbeit #leadingbyexample #WWII #shero Federal Aviation Administration Women in Aviation International The Ninety-Nines, Inc, International Organization of Women Pilots The Grande Dames of Aviation
Picture: Shirley Slade, WWII WASP pilot of B-26 and B-39.
