DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm not going to dress it up one bit more than the story already deserves. Cornelia Clark Fort. Born February 5, 1919, into an affluent Tennessee family.
By all accounts, she was headed for a perfectly comfortable society life — Ward-Belmont School in Nashville, then Sarah Lawrence College in New York, graduating in 1939. She came back home to Tennessee and, by every reasonable measure, that could have been the whole story. But then a friend introduced her to flying.
Now, some people take to the air the way others take to a rocking chair — slow, cautious, unsure. Cornelia Fort was not that kind of person. In her first week in the air, she logged over two thousand miles.
One week. Two thousand miles. She became an instructor in 1941, just one year after her first flying lesson.
She worked with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's civilian pilot training program out at Fort Collins, Colorado, then took a similar position all the way out in Hawaii. And it was there, on the morning of December 7, 1941, that history found her in the one place it could — up in the sky. She was airborne with a trainee when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor.
Cornelia Fort landed safely while under enemy fire. Let that settle for a moment. By 1942, she had joined the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron — the WAFS — commanded by Nancy Harkness Love.
Fort and twenty-six other women pilots ferried war planes across the United States. The work was essential, and it was dangerous, and they knew it. Fort was transferred to a new squadron in Long Beach, California.
On March 21, 1943, she was ferrying a BT-13A airplane toward Dallas' Love Field. While flying in formation, her plane struck another aircraft. Available records indicate that Cornelia Clark Fort was the first American woman pilot to die on active military duty.
She plunged into the rugged terrain of Mulberry Canyon, three miles southeast of the marker that now bears her name. She was twenty-four years old. Shortly before her death, she wrote these words herself: "I am grateful that my one talent, flying, was useful to my country." The story didn't end with her.
On August 4, 1943, WAFS personnel merged with and helped create the Women Airforce Service Pilots — the WASP — led by noted aviator Jacqueline Cochran. The WASP's most famous training ground was Avenger Field at Sweetwater, just over in nearby Nolan County. Cornelia Fort flew two thousand miles in her first week.
She flew through enemy fire at Pearl Harbor. She flew until the very end. And she left behind the only testimony any of it needed, written in her own hand.
What the marker says
(February 5, 1919 - March 21, 1943) Born into an affluent Tennessee family, Cornelia Fort attended the Ward-Belmont School in Nashville and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1939. She returned to a society life in Tennessee but was soon introduced to flying by a friend. In her first week in the air, Fort logged over 2,000 miles. She became an instructor in 1941, a year after her first flying lesson. She worked with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's civilian pilot training program at Fort Collins, Colorado, before taking a similar position in Hawaii. She was airborne with a trainee when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor; Fort landed safely while under enemy fire. By 1942 she was part of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) commanded by Nancy Harkness Love. Fort and 26 other women pilots ferried war planes across the United States. Fort was transferred to a new squadron in Long Beach, California. On March 21, 1943, she ferried a BT-13A airplane toward Dallas' Love Field. While flying in formation, her plane struck another aircraft. Available records indicate that Fort was the first American woman pilot to die on active military duty when she plunged into the rugged terrain of Mulberry Canyon, three miles southeast of this site. Shortly before her death at age 24, Cornelia wrote, "I am grateful that my one talent, flying, was useful to my country." On August 4, 1943, WAFS personnel merged with and helped create the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), led by noted aviator Jacqueline Cochran. The WASP's most famous training ground was Avenger Field at Sweetwater in nearby Nolan County. (2000)