2LT Elaine Danforth Harmon Oral History

title:

2LT Elaine Danforth Harmon Oral History

creator:

Harmon, Elaine (Danforth) (1919 December 26 - )

subject:

Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) | AF Reserve

description:

Elaine Harmon (formerly Danforth) was born on December 26, 1919 in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in microbiology in 1940 and worked at a medical lab at Georgetown Hospital. She had also gotten married in July 1941 and was living with her husband in Takoma Park, Maryland when Pearl Harbor was bombed. When the war started, she and her husband were immediately ready to contribute to the war. Harmon applied to be a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) as soon as she could in 1944. Her husband wasn’t eligible for military service, so he learned how to repair airplane instruments and went to Biak in Indonesia to set up repair shops. She was trained as a WASP at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas and was subsequently stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once the women were sent to their stations, they didn’t see much of each other because they were so busy in their different roles. Harmon worked in instrument training, taking up pilots who wanted to practice their instrument flying. She was disappointed when the program was shut down because they had been told they would be apart of the Air Corps, but despite being trained just like the men they never did, which also kept them from accessing benefits from service or being recognized as veterans for decades after the war ended. After the WASP program was shut down, Harmon became a mother and, in 1947, took up the Air Force’s offer for WASPs to join the Air Force Reserves. Two years later, however, she was informed she could no longer participate in the Reserves since she had a child under the age of 18. When she left the Air Force Reserve in 1949, Harmon had reached the rank of 2nd lieutenant. Although she didn’t receive any awards for her WASP service until 1977, she (and all the other WASPs) was awarded an American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and Congressional Gold Medal for her service. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Hodgson, Carolyn

date:

2011-10-06

type:

Audio

format:

CD

identifier:

1131; 2011.1131

source:

Connelly School of the Holy Child | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

038962

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1944 | 1947-49

rights:

Unrestricted