Congress Grants WASP Flier’s Wish, A Place at Arlington

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. 
CREST HAVEN – Freeholder E. Marie Hayes presented a proclamation to Linda Harmon of Ocean City June 14 attesting to what she did, not only for her late mother-in-law, Elaine D. Harmon, but for other members of the World War II Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), a congressional act, then President Barack Obama’s signature on a law that permits them to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
Harmon, 95, of Silver Spring, Md., died April 21, 2015. Her death was a month after then-Secretary of the Army John McHugh rescinded the right for WASP members, of which there had been about 1,000 during the war, to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Dwindling space was the reason. 
Harmon’s cremains are in her daughter’s Silver Spring home, awaiting final placement.
“They messed with the wrong family,” said Harmon. “My niece started a petition online.” That action commenced a groundswell of over 200,000 signatures of support for the female pilots to be buried at Arlington.
Harmon was the first WASP to be denied that military honor. Having attended other WASP interments there, she had written her desire to also be buried there, said her son William Harmon, who accompanied his wife to the freeholders’ meeting.
His mother’s desire was not an idle wish; rather it was well founded and documented.
The uniformed Harmon was photographed with two other WASP members along with five active duty female pilots in the White House Oval Office July 1, 2009.
Harmon stood behind President Obama as he signed into law S.614 that awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to WASP members. Another photo shows her talking in a small group with the president.
To be so honored and then denied burial at the national cemetery about six years later incensed Harmon’s family.
Vital Mission
WASP members numbered about 1,100 in 1942-43. Their primary mission was to fly non-combat military missions within the United States. Such flights were from factories to military bases or between bases. There were 38 deaths while flying those planes.
The White House July 1, 2009 release stated of WASP, “Its pilots were the first women ever to fly American military aircraft and flew almost every type of aircraft operated by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II on a wide range of missions.”
“Their contribution went largely unrecognized for years, not even being acknowledged with veteran status until 1977,” the release stated.
Groundswell of Opinion
The family began a concerted effort to enlist as many members of the public and Congress as possible to make the Army change its stance because that service oversees the Arlington cemetery.
National media carried Harmon’s story. The Harmons showed freeholders an album of their late loved one in and on military planes, another showed her bungee jumping at age 76.
Accompanying the Harmons’ presentation was a Feb. 27, 2016, article from The New York Times as Congress waged its battle to have WASP members buried in the national cemetery.
From Bill to Law
That congressional campaign urged on by the Harmon family, ended just over a month ago, May 20 when the president signed into law PL 114-158. That bill directs the Department of the Army to “ensure that the cremated remains of persons whose service has been determined to be active duty service pursuant to the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977 are eligible for above ground inurnment in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.”
Reactions
“I don’t think anyone should have to go through this,” said Hayes as she spoke to the Harmons in front of the board at its caucus session. “These women were absolute heroes; you are our hero,” said Hayes.
Hayes said when she told Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton, an Air Force veteran, the family’s dilemma, “His jaw dropped,” and instructed Hayes to offer Harmon “whatever she needs.”
“If it weren’t for those women taking these aircraft and flying them, they would have had to use combat pilots taken out of the water theater. Those women were absolutely necessary. They flew all types of aircraft. It wasn’t just one type, they were bombers and fighter planes, P-51s, P-40s. They were real pilots,” said Thornton.
“If we have any women in the county of Cape May (who served in the WASP mission) they will be buried in our veterans’ cemetery,” Thornton added.
Sept. 7 Funeral
William Harmon said a Sept. 7 funeral is scheduled at Arlington. There his mother’s final wish, to have her ashes entombed among the nation’s military heroes, will be realized.
Harmon told freeholders he heard that a female Air Force Thunderbird pilot was “trying to get permission” to fly over the cemetery at the funeral as a final farewell from a flier who followed the path Harmon helped to blaze.