Woman Pilots: Doris Abbate

Doris Abbate had an infant and three toddlers at home when she soloed in 1959. This was on Long Island at Zahns Airport, Amityville. She flew in a J3 Piper Cub.

She earned her license in her own Tripacer, 8801C, followed by her commercial, instrument and instrument ground instructor ratings.

Doris competed in the Air Race Classic and the Garden State 300. She took first place in the USPFT New England Regional, advancing to the USPFT National Finalist in 1985.

In 1985 she served as a judge for thhe World Precision Flight Championship and the US Precision Flight Team.

Doris joined the 99s - the Greater New York Chapter in 1961 - and became a charter member of her Long Island Chapter in 1965.

She served on the Internation Board of directors as secretary 1988-90, International Director 1992-1994, and NY/NJ section governor 1986-1988.

She was recognized as an International Forest of Friendship honoree in 1982 and by New York State for Aerospace Community Service in 1987.




Bibliography
The Ninrty-Nines: Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow. Turner Publishing Co. 1996

Military Fly Moms, by Linda Maloney

The book can be purchased from: http://www.lindaheidmaloney.com/. It is also available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at your local bookstores.



71 pilots who are also mothers share their stories in this book, Military Fly Moms. The editor, Linda Maloney, is also a pilot and a mother. (Indeed, Maloney served in a combat flying squadron and was awarded the Air Medal for combat, awarded for flights flown over southern Iraq in support of the no-fly zone during her deployment to the Arabian Gulf.)

In this over-sized book, each pilot's story fills 3 pages, and is illustrated with a full-color photo (with the occasional black-and-white.)

Each story also has a "Mom to Mom" box, in which the pilot answers the question, "What is the most rewarding thing about being a mom":

Carey Lorenz: "The most rewarding thing about being a mom is seeing the world from my kids' perspective - a world filled with unlimited possibilities, opportunities, and laughter. Knowing that, with love and guidance, my children will grow into compassionate people, gives me grat satisfaction.

Shari Scott: The most rewarding thing about being a mom is experiencing the day-to-day joy that children bring as they encounter new challenges, endure failures, and thrill to successes. There is nothing that touches a heart andsoul like the smiles, hugs and the love of a child!

Each of these women was a career pilot - most of them serving their full 20 years in the service.

Each pilot's story follows the same outline. Where she grew up, what inspired her to enter the service and become a pilot, some of her adventures throughout her career, the decision to have children, and some of the adventures raising them.

Any mom who works outside the home (they all work inside the home!) knows how difficult it can be to raise children and hold down a career. These women's careers were in the military, and as pilots, with all the high-pressure that implies, and they succeeded as both pilots and mothers.

Why is this book necessary? Well, despite the fact that women have been flying since only a few years after the Wright brothers made the first controlled flight in 1903, many people still don't realize that women are pilots - at least, not pilots of military craft. This despite the fact that the WASP of World War II received plenty of publicity during the war, and though they faded from view from 1945-1977, since that time their stories have been told.

But the stories always need retelling, it seems.

The pilots:
ARMY
Victoria (Uptegraft) Cain
Connie Reeves
Tami (Beutel) Reynolds
Karen (Williams) White

NAVY
Susan (Decker) Allen
Karen (Stottlemyer) Baetzel
Barbara Bell
Pamela (Lyons) Carel
Sally deGozzaldi
Catherine (McCann) Gillies
Kristin (Burke) Greentree
Michelle (Guidry) Hickie
Jamie (Edwards) Johnson
Margaret (DeLuca) Klein
Karin (Klose) Kulinski
Lorie (Bolebruch) Lindholm
Cynthia (Persinger) Lisa
Carey (Dunai) Lohrenz
Linda (Heid) Maloney
Jean (Condie) O'Brien
Jane (Skiles) O'Dea
Patsy (Van Bloem) Schumacher
Shari (Pavlik) Scott
Paula (Coleman) Senn
Tammie Jo (Bonnell) Shults
Kerry (Kuykendall) Smith
Jenny (Merrill) Tinjum
Linda (Evans) Wackerman

Air Force/Air National Guard
Tammy (Ward) Barlette
Lisa (Wilman) Barente
Shannon Cary
Elisa (Romano) D'Antonio
Celeste (Sanders) Dryjanski
Laurie (McLean) Farris
Susan (Rank) Foy
Barbara (Brumme) Garwood
Kelly (Neal) Goggin
Ann (Bunton) Halle
Kelly (Waltmire) Hamilton
Casey (Legler) Hinds
Christine (Allick) Hopper
Valerie (Perkins) Kester
Michele (Meyer) Kilgore
Christi (Favalito) Legawiec
Kate (Wildasin) Lowe
Juli (Dahnke) Mansfield
Kelly (Sloan) Marcell
Christine (Callahan) Mau
Melissa (Hyland) May
Lida Dais Dahnke Munz
Bonnie (Cox) Paquin
Sharon (Cleary) Preszler
Lori (Edinger) Rasmussen
Louise (Sabelstrom) Reeves
Heather Sharp-Schlichting
Monica (Holzhauer) Sylla
Sheila (Connolly) Thompson
Marjorie (Clark) Varuska
Shannon Yenchesky
Katherine (Combs) Yingst

Marine Corps
Sarah (Deal) Barrow
Keri (Berman) May
Alexis (Rominger) McCabe
Jen (Hall) Nothelfer
UNN-Kristin Solberg
Celeste (Roberts) Stevens

Coast guard
Polly (Pieterek) Bartz
Elizabeth (Francis) Booker
Lauren (Felix) Cox
Kristy (Horvath) Kiernan
Susan (Ator) Maitre

Filmmaker brings to light the story of women's national air derby

This documentary is on DVD and can be purchased from the website:
http://breakingthroughtheclouds.com/, for $30 plus postage.

From Herald Mail.com: Filmmaker brings to light the story of women's national air derby
Amelia Earhart is a household name when it comes to the pioneers of female aviation.

However, pilots like Phoebe Omlie, Ruth Elder and Louise Thaden — although not as famous — were just as revolutionary.

Along with 16 others in 1929, the four female pilots took part in the first-ever women’s national air derby, racing across the United States in nine days, to prove that women could fly just like men.

The story was so moving, filmmaker Heather Taylor made it the feature of her 2010 documentary “Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby,” which was shown Thursday night at Hagerstown Community College’s Kepler Theater.

“It’s often said that women’s history is written in invisible ink,” said Taylor of Columbia, Md. “And it’s not that women didn’t do anything; they’ve done a lot. We just don’t hear about it. And we need to hear their stories.”

The event was sponsored by HCC’s National Organization for Women Club as a way to recognize national Women’s History Month.

Linda Smith, the faculty adviser for HCC’s NOW Club, said she first saw the 90-minute documentary at the Maryland International Film Festival in October 2011. She immediately found Taylor to ask if she could screen the film at HCC for their event.

“This is the story of 20 women in 1929 who flew in open cockpit airplanes from California to Ohio,” Smith said. “It just amazes me what they did. I didn’t know their story.”

Along their flight from Santa Monica to Cleveland, the women had to endure cultural stereotypes, navigation challenges, threats of sabotage and mechanical difficulties.

The documentary includes actual footage from the time, which is remarkable in its own right, Smith said.

“There were still silent films going on at that point,” she said.

Taylor began researching the story of the derby in 1997. A decade later, she quit her job to focus solely on producing the documentary. She researched, wrote, directed and produced the now award-winning film, which premiered in the summer of 2010.

“The premiere was fabulous,” she said. “I got a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. I always laugh because I was in the back of the theater saying I had prepared for everything to go wrong, but when everything went right, I was frozen. I wasn’t sure what to do.”

Taylor said she hopes the film inspires men and women alike to follow their dreams.

“It’s important to know your history, but also to know that people before you broke barriers to find their passion,” Taylor said. “You can ... break through the clouds in whatever you want to do. It’s about finding your passion. If these women can do it, you can do it, too.”

Short Hills woman featured in book Military Fly Moms

I have a copy of this book myself and will be reviewing it shortly.

In addition, author Linda Maloney is offering a $10 discount to anyone who buys the book from her website, who mentions that they read about it either on this blog or on my website, Winged Victory!

From NJ.com: Short Hills woman featured in book Military Fly Moms

For the past seven years, Linda Maloney, a retired naval aviator, and seventy other women collaborated on a special project—telling their individual stories as female military aviators and mothers.

The culmination of this extensive process, a coffee-table book called Military Fly Moms. One of these women, former Navy pilot Cynthia (Persinger) Lisa, says she fell in love with the Naval Academy and Annapolis the minute she walked onto the academy yard during her junior year of high school, believing that the academy’s emphasis on leadership, academics, and athletics was the perfect fit for her.

The possibility of flying in the military always interested her, but really was just the icing on the cake. While at the academy, Lisa met her future husband, Mike, also a midshipman, and they married after graduation. Both were both selected for flight training and to fly the EA-6B Prowler, the Navy’s four-seat electronic countermeasures jet. Stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, but assigned to different squadrons, Lisa and her husband were frequently apart during their three-year operational tours, but she loved her time as a Prowler pilot. She gained combat experience supporting ground troops in Iraq during her squadron’s six month deployment in 2005 on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

On March 3, 2006, her life changed forever as she led a flight of two Prowlers on a low altitude military-training route, flying at an altitude of 500 feet and speed of 420 knots. Halfway through the route, she heard a strange whining sound inside her jet. Within seconds, both the front and rear cockpits filled with smoke. The jet was on fire and uncontrollable. Approximately twenty seconds after the initial noise, Lisa ejected her crew out of the aircraft, watching as the jet crashed into the side of a hill. She and her crew survived with minor injuries. Soon after the ejection, Lisa and her husband transferred to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for their next tours.

While her husband attended the Navy’s Test Pilot School, she took a non-flying job so they could start their family. They welcomed their first child in 2008 and now have three children—two girls and, most recently, a baby boy. Lisa left the Navy in 2010 and, while she misses flying and longs to be airborne, she is enjoying the simple pleasures of being a mom! Lisa and her family recently moved to Japan, where her husband is stationed.

Although the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) served during World War II, the first female aviators to support the U.S. military, their organization was disbanded when the men started coming home. As with most young people serving during the war years, these amazing young pilots, although many would have preferred to keep on flying, went home, got married, raised families, and generally put their war years behind them. In 1977, after a long legislative campaign, they were recognized by Congress as American military veterans. These 1,074 WASP had flown every single aircraft in the U.S. military inventory, ferried aircraft from coast to coast, and trailed banners behind their planes for artillery trainees to shoot at. Thirty-eight of them died in training flights or while on missions. In 2010, Congress awarded each of the WASP its highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

For nearly thirty years after WWII, even though women had been slowly gaining permanent status in the military since the Army Nurse Corps had been established in 1901, no women flew again in any kind of military capacity. In 1972, the services could no longer defend the notion that they had no use for female pilots, especially considering the numerous noncombat roles and missions that existed. The first Navy women to pin on the gold wings of an aviator did so in 1973, and the first female Army aviator graduated with her wings in 1974. The Air Force followed suit with ten female pilots earning aviator wings in 1977. From that first group of female Navy pilots,
Jane Skiles O’Dea became the first female naval aviator to have a baby while on active duty. One of the women in Military Fly Moms, O’Dea also wrote the foreword, where she says, “My daughters grew up with a mom who wore a flight suit to work every day and they thought that was perfectly normal.”

Although this second generation of women military aviators received pay and allowances, benefits and promotions, and could remain a service member after having children, unlike the WASP, the opportunity or obligation, depending upon one’s point of view, to fly Navy or Air Force combat aircraft on combat missions over combat territory was restricted by the National Security Act of 1947. Despite the ban on combat, women were performing an inherently dangerous mission. Barbara Rainey, the Navy’s first female pilot, and the student she was instructing were killed in 1982 while practicing takeoffs and landings. Military Fly Moms is dedicated to this young aviator mom who left behind two young daughters. During Operation Desert Storm, Major Marie
T. Rossi-Cayton, the first woman pilot in U.S. history to fly in combat, died when her helicopter crashed in Saudi Arabia in 1991.

Various organizations, such as the WASP and Women Military Aviators, finally wrenched from Congress in 1993 the repeal of the combat exclusion law and this led to the third generation of women military aviators. From this point forward, they could and would fly the same aircraft as their male counterparts, except those involved in special operations. Both the Navy and the Air Force graduated their first female fighter pilots in 1994, and the Marine Corps awarded wings to its first female aviator in 1995. Tragically, just a few months after becoming the first female Navy fighter pilot, Lieutenant Kara Spears Hultgreen was killed while attempting a carrier landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast. Maloney, the squadron duty officer for the day and a good friend of Hultgreen, watched in horror as Hultgreen’s F-14 Tomcat lost altitude, rolled to the left, and disappeared. “We kept hoping Kara would be found, until it was obvious she had not survived. Several weeks later, divers discovered her body on the ocean floor, still strapped in her ejection seat,” Maloney writes in Military Fly Moms. At the memorial service on the Lincoln a few days later, Maloney gave the eulogy.

Maloney had herself experienced a traumatic incident while flying, but was fortunate enough to survive. In 1991, the E6-A Prowler she was navigating, at 15,000 feet and one hundred miles off the Florida coast, became sluggish, lost hydraulics, and began to roll. The pilot yelled, “Eject!” In her own story in Military Fly Moms, Maloney explains what happened. “I pulled the lower ejection handle, and I remember a flurry of yellow papers (from my kneeboard card) flying around, and then my ejection seat exploding through the canopy glass. The pilot ejected seconds later. I lost consciousness briefly. When I came to, I was hanging in my parachute, descending toward the ocean.”

Luckily, Maloney received injuries no more serious than bruises. Only two women are known to have ejected prior to Maloney—Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, ejected from her space capsule 4.3 miles above the earth in 1963, the normal egress; and Lieutenant Kathy Cullen, navigator, ejected from an EA-4F Skyhawk in 1985 when the engine failed upon approach in instrument conditions. The pilot was killed. In addition to being the third known female ejectee.

Maloney was honored for being the first woman, among 6,000 ejections, using the Martin-Baker ejection seat. A few years later, Maloney became one of the first American women to fly combat missions, earning the distinguished Air Medal for combat for her flights enforcing the no-fly zone over Southern Iraq during Operation Southern Watch, designed to protect Shiite Muslims.

Towards the end of her Navy career, Maloney married and became a mom. She says, “As I packed away my flight gear in the basement just a few months after having my first son, I thought about the legacy, as a mom who’d enjoyed a very unique career, that I would pass down to him.”

Thinking about women military aviators who had also been mothers she had known, Maloney wondered how these women managed to combine such an intensely challenging career as military aviation with the even more challenging one of motherhood. And so her vision of passing on a legacy from this elite group of women was born, to which she devoted countless hours over the years while having her second son, working full-time, moving to another state, volunteering, mentoring, and fulfilling other modern-life duties and obligations.

Each woman in Military Fly Moms provided Maloney with her own personally written story, describing her family background, her education, how and when she became struck by aviation, her military experience, how she became a military aviator, her military aviation experiences, her entry into motherhood, and the balance she tried to maintain in both worlds. It is clear through the stories related in Military Fly Moms that not a single woman found the entire experience to be easy enough to sail through without obstacles or learning experiences. For most, an encouraging parent sent her on her path; a partnering husband supported her to keep following her dreams; and her children sustained her faith in herself. Many times, an aviator mom exited the military to focus on her family, only to find that she needed to return to the cockpit, and often did, whether in the Reserve or Guard, or with a civilian airline. Regardless of the enormous obstacles most faced in achieving their goals, they all persevered, and the most important lesson resonating throughout the stories is, “Don’t ever give up!”

Earhart Search 75

Visit this website to learn about the search for Amelia Earhart (and her navigator):

http://www.earhartsearch75.com/

June 1-3, 2012
On the 75th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s departure from the U.S. for her ill-fated world flight, TIGHAR will host “Earhart Search 75,” a three-day conference to explore what has been learned in three-quarters of a century of efforts to discover Earhart’s fate. Researchers, scientists, historians, archaeologists, and forensic experts will present their findings on a wide range of topics in support of a variety of theories.

Amelia Earhart mystery attracts Hillary Clinton

From CBS News: Amelia Earhart mystery attracts Hillary Clinton
AP) WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is wading into one of the 20th century's most enduring mysteries: the fate of American aviator Amelia Earhart, who went missing without a trace over the South Pacific 75 years ago.

Clinton will meet Tuesday with historians and scientists from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which is launching a new search in June for the wreckage of Earhart's Lockheed Electra plane off the remote island of Nikumaroro, in what is now the Pacific nation of Kiribati. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared July 2, 1937, while flying from New Guinea to Howland Island. Searches at the time uncovered nothing.

The group believes Earhart and Noonan may have managed to land on the island, then known as Gardner Island, and survived for a short time. Other historians believe they crashed into the ocean. But conspiracy theories, including claims that they were U.S. government agents captured by the Japanese before the Second World War, abound despite having been largely debunked.

One senior U.S. official said a new analysis of a contemporary photo of a portion of the island shows what some people believe could be a strut and wheel of the plane protruding from the water. The administration takes no position on the purported evidence and acknowledges there is fierce debate on the subject.

The expedition will coincide with the 75th anniversary of Earhart's departure on the ill-fated attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world. Previous visits to the island by the group have recovered artifacts that could have belonged to Earhart and Noonan and suggest they might have lived for days or weeks after landing on a reef.

State Department officials say Clinton will use Tuesday's event to lend her high profile to the search while also lauding Earhart's legacy as a pioneer for women and a model of American courage. She will also note the Obama administration's keen interest in the Pacific.

The "event will underscore America's spirit of adventure and courage, as embodied by Amelia Earhart, and our commitment to seizing new opportunities for cooperation with Pacific neighbors founded on the United States' long history of engagement in the Asia-Pacific region," the department said in a statement.

The State Department and other U.S. government agencies supported Earhart and her goal. The State Department obtained flight clearances from the countries in which she stopped and coordinated the search effort with foreign governments.

Gov. Beshear Honors Three Kentucky Women Added to Exhibit

From SurkkeyNews Group: Gov. Beshear Honors Three Kentucky Women Added to Exhibit
WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (3/14/12) – Governor Steve Beshear joined the Kentucky Commission on Women today to honor three distinguished Kentucky women for their illustrious careers and significant contributions to the Commonwealth.

Willa Beatrice Brown, Crit Luallen and Joan Riehm were inducted into the “Kentucky Women Remembered” exhibit. As part of the honor, their portraits will be displayed alongside past inductees in the state Capitol.

“These honorees have made a meaningful difference throughout their years of service and have paved the way for the success of Kentucky women, both now and in the future,” Gov. Beshear said. “Jane and I are proud to recognize these individuals for this distinction and hope their influence and achievements will continue to be appreciated and acknowledged for years to come.”

The honor comes posthumously to Brown and Riehm. Brown was the first African-American woman to be licensed to fly in the United States. Riehm served for 15 years as the first female deputy mayor of Louisville. Luallen worked for six Kentucky governors and recently completed her second term as Kentucky state auditor.

“Kentucky Women Remembered,” overseen by the Kentucky Commission on Women, began in 1978 and consists of portraits depicting outstanding women in Kentucky’s history. The exhibit found a permanent home in the Capitol in 1996 after many years of traveling around the state.

Thousands of visitors to the Capitol view the portraits each year and learn about the heritage and contributions of women in Kentucky.

The Kentucky Women Remembered Committee selects up to three Kentucky women annually to become part of the exhibit. Nominees must have been born in or spent a significant part of their lives in Kentucky and may be living or deceased.

“For years, many contributions women have made in the fabric of Kentucky history have gone unnoticed and unrecorded,” said Eleanor Jordan, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Women. “This annual ceremony and recognition of women’s history month is our way of writing some of those women back into history and highlighting how significant their roles have been to the Commonwealth.”

With the three current inductees, the exhibit boasts 65 portraits of outstanding women in Kentucky.

Willa Beatrice Brown
beatrice(Barren County, 1906-1992) In an era harsh for both women and African- Americans, Willa Beatrice Brown sought great challenge. Influenced by aviatrix Bessie Coleman, Brown began flight lessons in 1934 at Chicago’s Aeronautical University. In 1937, she received both a master’s degree from Northwestern University and her pilot’s license – making her the first African-American woman to be licensed to fly in the United States.

In 1939, she received her commercial pilot’s license, making her the first African-American woman to make a career of aviation and the person most responsible for preparing blacks for World War II. Brown became the first African-American officer in the Civil Air Patrol in 1941, and the U.S. government named her federal coordinator of the Chicago Unit. She was the first woman in the U.S. to have both a mechanic’s license and a commercial pilot’s license. In 1942, she became a training coordinator for the Civil Aeronautics Administration and a teacher in the Civilian Pilot Training Program.

Brown trained more than 2,000 black pilots, nearly 200 of whom became the squadron at Tuskegee Institute, better known as the legendary “Tuskegee Airmen.” In 2002, she was named one of the Women in Aviation’s 100 Most Influential Women in Aviation and Aerospace. In 2003, Brown was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Kentucky’s Aviation Museum.

Crit Luallen
crit(Franklin County, 1952- ) Descended from two Kentucky governors, Crit Luallen places public service in the highest regard. She has served Kentucky with distinction, honor and integrity as a public servant for more than two decades. Her career encompasses the positions of state budget director, secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, secretary of the Tourism Cabinet, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of the Arts, and special assistant to Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins.

She was also president of the Greater Louisville Economic Development Partnership and served as secretary of Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton’s Executive Cabinet for seven years before being elected twice as Kentucky auditor of public accounts. As auditor, she uncovered millions of dollars in government fraud and questionable expenditures, leading to the criminal prosecutions of 32 individuals and referral of more than 200 cases to law enforcement agencies for criminal investigation. She has made it her mission to reach out to women and minorities to encourage their involvement in public service.

As one of few Kentucky women ever elected to statewide office, she sets the standard with her personal values, ethics, sense of accountability and principled decision-making for other aspiring women to emulate if they are interested in making a difference in the Commonwealth and the nation.

Joan Riehm
joan(Jefferson County, 1945-2008) Joan Riehm’s distinguished career in communications, public service and civic affairs spanned more than three decades – beginning as a journalist at The Courier-Journal in Louisville and culminating in her 15 years of service as deputy mayor of the city of Louisville. She was the first woman to serve in that position. Riehm was particularly passionate about women’s issues, education, the environment and the beautification of Louisville. She recognized that advancing the quality of life for women was crucial to Louisville’s future.

Riehm was one of the driving forces behind Benchmark 2000, a community-wide effort to document the status of women and girls in Jefferson County at the millennium. Her efforts led to the creation of the nationally acclaimed Women 4 Women organization in Louisville. Riehm co-founded the Leadership Kentucky program, and her legacy of mentorship led to the creation of the Joan Riehm Women’s Leadership Fund. She was recognized nationally as an expert on local government reorganization.

The watercolor portraits of the three inductees were painted by Carla Canonero Phillips, of Frankfort, who is the fifth artist commissioned for the Kentucky Women Remembered exhibit. For more information on the Kentucky Commission on Women and to view the portraits, http://women.ky.gov/2012KyWomenRemembered.htm.

During the induction ceremony, Gov. Beshear proclaimed March as Women’s History Month.

“Kentucky women have played and continue to play a critical economic, cultural and social role in every sphere of life of the Commonwealth, by constituting a significant portion of the labor force working inside and outside of the home,” Gov. Beshear said. “Each year since 1987, March has been designated as Women’s History Month in our nation, and it is a time for all Kentuckians to learn more about the invaluable role women have had in the creation of our history.”