Winner Of Two Congressional Gold Medals Passes At Age 96

One of the last remaining members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) has Gone West at the age of 96.

Elizabeth Strohfus passed away March 6th at an assisted living facility in Faribault, MN due to complications from a fall, according to her son, Art Roberts.

The Washington Post reports that Mrs. Strohfus had ferried military planes across the United States in 1943 and 1944. She also helped train air and infantry gunners at Las Vegas Army Airfield. According to her bio from the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, she taught instrument flying to male cadets and later ferried B-17 and AT-6 warbirds around the country.

She was born in Faribault in 1919, and appeared to be headed for a very normal life for a woman at the time. She worked in the register of deeds office in the county courthouse after completing high school, a job she found "stifling."

According to the Post, she became interested in flying after overhearing a conversation about it, and took her first ride in an airplane at the age of 21, according to Wikipedia. She began volunteering at the Faribault airport, learning from pilots with the local flying club. She was such a good stick that when one of the pilots left to join the military, she was invited to join the club ... which cost $100. That would be more than $1,000 today.

Using her bicycle as collateral, she got a loan from a local bank and joined the club.

After her service as a WASP, she applied for but was denied a job with Northwest Airlines. She worked as an aircraft controller in Wyoming before returning to Faribault, where she married and raised a family.

Strohfus was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in 2000, and received Congressional Gold Medals for her service as a WASP and the Civil Air Patrol.

(Image from Minnesota Public Radio YouTube video)

FMI: Full Story, www.mnaviationhalloffame.org/HoFPages/hofS1.html