Lt Col Kathy La Sauce USAF Ret. Oral History - Interview 2

title:

Lt Col Kathy La Sauce USAF Ret. Oral History - Interview 2

creator:

LaSauce, Kathy "Hot Lips" (1949 November 14 -

subject:

Air Force

description:

Interview 2 of 3. Kathy LaSauce was born on November 14, 1949 and grew up in Yaphank, a hamlet in Long Island, New York. Her father was a Seabee during World War II, and she had an older sister and younger brother. Her younger brother joined the Air Force to avoid being drafted into the Army. After she graduated college she thought the only options she had were to be a wife, secretary, or teacher, and after starting a degree in teaching, she decided it wasn’t for her. Instead, she went to an Air Force recruiter. The Vietnam War was ongoing and she knew people who were drafted and killed in the war, so she thought it was the right thing to do. In 1972, she went to Officer Training School in San Antonio, Texas. At the time women weren’t allowed to participate in small arms training or run the obstacle course, despite her and her female classmates petitioning to take part. The women were also largely relegated to cheering on men’s athletic teams, with very few available for them to compete on. After completing OTS, she was a part of the first class of women aircraft maintenance officers. When they arrived for training at Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois, there were no steel-toed boots or static proof uniforms for women, so they all had to do their best to find a men’s size that fit them. Later, she also faced these uniform hurdles in pilot training. After completing aircraft maintenance training, she was assigned to Travis Air Force Base, California at the beginning of 1973. There, she had enough commanding officers that supported her as a maintenance officer rather than just sticking her behind a desk, and they would push back on her behalf when less supportive COs undermined her career because of her gender. Although she tried to volunteer to go to Vietnam while here, her chief of maintenance said she didn’t have enough experience. Instead, she spent two years at Travis AFB working in refurbishment and transit maintenance, then she was stationed at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam in April 1975. She found that even when she faced pushback from some men, often they would eventually come around as they worked together. When the Air Force launched a test program for training women pilots, Kathy was among the first ten women to go through Undergraduate Pilot Training in 1976. From that point on, she knew that people would judge all future women pilots based on her, so she did her best to work hard to be accepted and treated like any other pilot. She trained as a C-141 pilot, which limited the work she could do because she was a woman. She was an instructor pilot and flight instructor, but she couldn’t be qualified for combat airlift or air refueling. She was also trained to fly C-130s, but she couldn’t join the reserves as a C-130 pilot because it had a combat mission. These limitations gave the impression that the Air Force never planned for these women pilots to stay in until retirement, so they didn’t figure out what their career paths could be beyond five to seven years. In 1984, she was stationed with the 89th Military Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. There, she commanded a squadron that flew the Vice President, cabinet members, Congressional leaders, and high-ranking dignitaries around the world. Towards the end of her time there, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and medically grounded. Because of how serious her health problems were, she was stationed at the Pentagon in a position that was held for pilots but didn’t conflict with her medical grounding. Because there were so few women maintenance officers and pilots throughout her career, she rarely worked with and around other women. Her last station was a return to the 89th Military Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB, where she was the deputy commander. She coordinated the air transportation for the President, VP, congresspeople, heads of state, and the Department of Defense. Although she was up to be promoted to colonel at the end this duty station, she turned it down and retired in 1992, choosing to do so because of her ongoing health issues and the limits her medical grounding would impose on her career. After retiring, she initially worked a full-time job, but struggled to do so. Instead, she trained to become an aquatic exercise therapist and volunteered, including eight years as a docent at the National Air and Space Museum.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Totzke, Cydnee

date:

2022-02-20

type:

Audio

format:

Born Digital

identifier:

1543.02; 2022.1543

source:

Bobbi Knapp - SIU

language:

English

relation:

052629

coverage:

Vietnam War (1964-1975) | Operation Desert Shield/Storm—1990-1991 | 1972-1992

rights:

Unrestricted