Heroic Women 1807

      You won't recognize the women above, perhaps they are lost to history, but they were flight crews that ferried B-17 bombers from American factories to England throughout WW-2. They were very good pilots, navigators and flight engineers. They were heroes.

      This picture is Amelia Earhart, a very accomplished woman who among other things was a newsreel star and a best-selling author, but is best known for her flying skills. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean and the first woman to fly solo from California to Honolulu. She attempted to circumnavigate the globe, but was lost somewhere in the vast Pacific. She was last heard from on her way to Howland Island, a tiny strip of land in the Pacific, just 6500 feet long and 1600 feet wide. Her radio and navigation equipment was not working properly. No one is sure exactly what happened to her, though there is a lot of speculation on what happened and where.

      You won't know this woman's name, but she was not lost to history. She was 20 years old when the picture was taken at the Naval air station Alemeda in California. She was working on a vertical turret lathe. Perhaps the picture below will spark your memory.

      She is Naomi Parker Farley, better known as Rosie the riveter! The photograph above was taken and it inspired J. Howard Miller to create the iconic 1943 poster of Rosie. These were all heroic women of bygone days.They led (in my opinion) the way for the women of today to accomplish so many wonderful things that they have done.