1LT Lorraine H. Rodgers Oral History

title:

1LT Lorraine H. Rodgers Oral History

creator:

Rodgers, Lorraine H. (Zillner) (1920 September 11 - )

subject:

Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) | AF Reserve

description:

Lorraine Z. Rodgers (formerly Zillner) was born on September 11, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up interested in flying, watching airplanes take off from and land at the airport near her family’s home. After college and in the early days of World War II, she worked at the Douglas Plant in Park Ridge, Illinois, which built aircrafts. She lived with her parents, and would use her time and paycheck each weekend to get some flying in at the local airport. She looked into joining the WASPs when, one day, she was at the airport and heard someone say Jacqueline Cochran was there to interview pilots. When she signed up in 1943, 25,000 women applied, 1,830 were accepted for training, and 1,074 earned their wings. Training was quite extensive, including basic, advanced, instrument, night flying, and twin-engine time, and ground school in physics math, radio, Morse code, navigation, meteorology, maps, and engines. Training took six months, and she loved all of it. While in Texas, she had a very close call on a plane crash, ejecting and pulling her parachute cord in time to get out, but she was worried the crash would get her removed from the WASPs all together. They later found out her rudder cord had been cut, so she continued flying as a WASP. She had great experiences with the men who trained her and the WASPs, but does remember herself and other women pilots facing skepticism and pushback by Army pilots as they began working. She recalls one story where a WASP landed where she was ordered to, was immediately surrounded by military police, and a commanding officer was so mad women were flying while he wasn’t that he called Washington, DC. After training, she was sent to Love Field in Dallas, Texas with ferrying command, meaning her job was to pick up planes from one base and deliver them to another base or their point of embarkation. After some time there, she was moved to Waco, Texas working in maintenance and tests at a basic flight school for male pilots. After two years as a WASP, World War II ended and the program was disbanded in 1945. After the program ended, she got a civilian job at the Glenview Naval Air Station near her parents’ home, which is also where she met her Navy pilot husband. He was in the Navy for 32 years, so they lived in places like the Mediterranean, Hawaii, and Japan as his stations changed. She served in the Air Force Reserves from 1949 to 1951 as well. She was also very involved in the 1970s efforts to get WASPs acknowledged as veterans, writing a book about her experiences in Congressional hearings leading up to the 1977 official acknowledgement. When she left the service Rodgers had reached the rank of 1st lieutenant, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Congressional Gold Medal, and National Defense Service Medal.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Reed, Ali

date:

2008-02-12

type:

Audio

format:

CD

identifier:

800; 2008.800

source:

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

language:

English

relation:

077436

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-45 | 1949-51

rights:

Unrestricted