Aviator Cornelia Fort wrote this article describing her experience on Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, when she and a student nearly collided with Japanese aircraft on a bombing run in Hawaii. She details seeing the smoke from the battleships in the harbor and the moment of realization that they were under attack. She describes how she came to join the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) after returning to the mainland. This article was published posthumously in the Women's Home Companion magazine in 1943, a few months after Fort's death.
Cornelia Fort, a Nashville debutant, earned her pilot's license in Tennessee's capital city. She became the first woman to die in military service during World War II when her airplane collided with another aircraft during a ferrying mission.
Nearly 350,000 American women served in uniform during World War II filling clerical jobs, working as laboratory technicians and radio operators, repairing and flying military aircraft across the country, and working near the front lines as nurses. When the war ended, many women wanted to keep their jobs. Due to the growing number of men returning home needing jobs and the decline in the need for war materials, most women were forced out of the workforce.
This source meets the 5.49 and US.52 Tennessee social studies standards.
Questions for Discussion:
1) Cornelia Fort was a Tennessean who served during World War II. Based on this primary source, how did she serve and what was the impact of that service?
2) With nearly 350,000 American women serving in uniform during World War II, what impact do you think that had on American society? What happened when the men fighting during wartime came home?
Lesson plans using this primary source:
Podcast:
For more primary sources about the Women in the Armed Forces, be sure to visit our website.
