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Female Pilot Gets Arlington Funeral for All WASPs

McSally's bill to overturn revoked WASP funerals comes to fruition

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Elaine Danforth Harmon, who died in April 2015, was finally buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, 70 years after she served her country and a year after she and her fellow pilots lost the right to be interred there.

Arizona Republican Rep. Martha McSally — a former fighter pilot — introduced a bill in January to qualify Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II, also known as WASPs, for military burial honors.

Elaine Danforth Harmon during her WASP days in World War II. (Courtesy Harmon family)
Elaine Danforth Harmon during her WASP days in World War II. (Courtesy Harmon family)

In 2002, WASPs won the right to have their ashes placed at Arlington, but the Army, which manages the cemetery, revoked those rights last year.

Former Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, who attended the funeral, found Harmon’s story interesting and remained close to the family. Harmon’s family also worked with Change.org to overturn the Army’s decision.

About 1,100 women served as WASPs during World War II. With male pilots in short supply early in the war, women volunteered to ferry new planes to their bases in the U.S., tow aerial gunnery targets, and flight-test repaired planes before they were returned to service.

In all, 38 WASPs were killed during their service — 11 in training and 27 on missions.

On Wednesday, McSally and Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst stood with Harmon’s family. Ernst, who served in the Army Reserve and the Iowa National Guard, supported McSally’s bill in the Senate.

During a flyover at the funeral, McSally stood and watched with Harmon’s fellow WASPs.

“Brings back memories,” the congresswoman said. “It does,” one WASP agreed.

Hundreds of people surrounded Harmon’s urn at the graveside while McSally sat in the front row with the late pilot’s family.

Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, center, and former WASP Shutsy Reynolds, 93, right, watch a flyover before Harmon's services. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, center, and former WASP Shutsy Reynolds, 93, right, watch a flyover before Harmon’s services. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

“The airplane doesn’t care if you’re a boy or a girl. They just care if you know how to fly and shoot straight eventually,” McSally said at a reception afterward at Arlington’s Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

“This was not an easy transition. There was a lot of hostility and people who wanted us to fail,” the congresswoman said of the effort to restore the WASPs’ rights.

But McSally described how supportive her colleagues were, like fellow Republican Carlos Curbelo of Florida.

“I said, ‘Carlos, I’m so happy you care about this issue but only one person can take the lead — do you have wings and ovaries?’” she said, referring to a conversation they had on the House floor.

[Women Pilots Want to be Buried at Arlington, Too]

The Harmon family presented McSally with an engraved “114th Congress HR 4336” silver WASP wings bracelet, a nod to her House bill. The congresswoman led the auditorium in singing the “Air Force Song.”

“I’m definitely the only member of Congress that has a bill on somebody’s arm,” McSally joked, pointing to the “HR 4336” tattoo on Elaine Harmon’s daughter Terry’s arm.

Terry Harmon thanked the crowd “for making a fuss. My mother and all the WASPs deserve this honor.”

Tiffany Miller, the late pilot’s granddaughter, added, “She was — as you may have figured out already — not your typical grandmother. I mean, she flew planes in World War II.”

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