Cornelia Fort

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cornelia Clark Fort was a civilian instructor pilot at an airfield near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on December 7th 1941.
Cornelia Clark Fort was a civilian instructor pilot at an airfield near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on December 7th 1941.

Cornelia Fort (1919 - 1943) was an aviatrix in the United States Armed Forces who became the first female pilot in American history to die in military service.

Fort was born to a wealthy and prominent Nashville, Tennessee, family. She was educated at Sarah Lawrence College, from which she earned a degree in 1939. She showed an early interest in flying, ultimately training for and earning her pilot's license in Hawaii. While working as a civilian pilot instructor at Pearl Harbor, she inadvertently became one of the first witnesses to the Japanese Battle of Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. The events of that day inspired her to join the military, where she was placed in the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. She was the second woman to do so.

Stationed at the 6th Ferrying Group base at Long Beach, California, Cornelia Fort became the first WAFS fatality, when her airplane collided in mid-air with another plane, ten miles south of Merkel, Texas, on March 21, 1943. At the time of the accident, Miss Fort was one of the most accomplished pilots of the WAFS and had some 1,100 hours to her credit. Her epitaph reads, "Killed in the Service of Her Country."

Portrayed in the film "Tora ! Tora ! Tora !" by Vivian Vance.

[edit] See also


[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Simbeck, Rob, "Daughter of the Air: The Brief Soaring Life of Cornelia Fort", Grove Press, 2001