She was one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), a group of women who flew military aircraft during World War II so that men were freed up for combat missions.
Harmon was laid to rest with a flag that female fighter pilots had flown in their planes as a tribute to Harmon and her fellow WASPs. "I was in a tow target squadron, training the boys at Fort Bliss. and they were shooting live bullets at our targets". But as NPR's Susan Stamberg has reported, they were regarded as civilians. The WASPs paid for their own room and board during training. The government neglected to provide financial benefits and gave no military honors to WASPs who flew during the war and did not recognize their contributions for decades. They served their country in wartime: 38 WASPs lost their lives during stateside flying duties.
"The only reason was because of sexism", Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., told Here & Now. With male pilots in short supply early in the war, women volunteered to ferry new planes to their bases in the US, tow aerial gunnery targets, and flight-test repaired planes before they were returned to service.
"I mean, the men who were doing the same roles before, alongside and after them, they were military".
"This says something about how strongly the women of America, and, thank God, an very bad lot of the men, understand what these women did in the war", says Rickman.
Ernst - who served 23 years between the Army Reserve and Army National Guard - says the WASPs were inspirations to women in the military everywhere.
Numerous women who flew these missions were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery over the years.
One of America's fearless World War II-era female pilots has finally been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Her ashes were inurned Wednesday morning after a 21-gun salute and a flyover of the planes she once piloted.
Then, she showed Congress that women should be treated as proper veterans when she testified for the recognition of the WASPs and finally got what she was seeking in 1977.
The military cited limited space.
It is hard to be granted in-ground burial at Arlington because of space limitations, but ashes and above-ground inurnment is easier. But eligibility for above-ground placement of ashes is not as strict.
McSally called it a "cruel injustice" for the Army to decide that no WASPs could qualify for inurnment.
"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 she had on the House floor with fellow Republican, Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo. "But look, when we are totally out of space. why would we not want to have the story of the WASPs as part of that legacy?" A post from January 5 of that year on the cemetery's website explained that move was due to an increasing lack of space in the cemetery, as the Monitor reported in May. And her daughter got to work, creating a Change.org petition to right the wrong.
Then McSally introduced legislation that would require the cemetery in Arlington, Va., to make WASPs eligible for inurnment. It was duly signed into law by President Barack Obama in May this year.
"It sounds amusing, but we're all kind of excited", Harmon's daughter told the AP before the ceremony. "In a way, we've already grieved, and this now is about closure".
