Second Lieutenant Mary Holmes Howson, an outdoorsy spirit with a dare-devil attitude, was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania on February 16, 1919[i]. During World War II, she was a pilot in the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) and gave her life in a crash.

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

Richard and Mary Holmes Howson, both of Pennsylvania,[ii] filled their home with the sounds of four lively children. Mary came along first and then was followed by three brothers, Richard Jr., Arthur L., and Robert D. Howson[iii]. All four of the Howson children grew up to serve in the military.

Brother Richard Jr. served as a Lieutenant Jr. Grade in the Navy in WWII as a Commissioned and Warrant Officer of the United States Naval and Reserve[iv]. Notably, her brother Arthur had a lifelong love of aviation but due to color blindness, he could not be a pilot like his big sister. Instead, he became an Army aviation mechanic.[v] Her youngest brother, Robert, who was too young to serve in WWII, served in the army in the 1950s.[vi]

Mary’s family was well known as her father was a patent attorney and her mother was a “Main Line matron,” according to HersheysMill.org.[vii] The Philadelphia Main Line was known as an extremely wealthy area during the time Mary was born in 1919.[viii] In the 1920 census, Richard Howson was employed as a mechanical engineer, by 1930, as a patent engineer and by 1940, a patent solicitor at his own firm.

Mary attended private school in Devon, PA for middle school then went on to graduate from Radnor High School in 1936.[ix] “John Corry, a friend of Mary’s from Radnor High, remembers her as, ‘an outdoors type of girl with a daredevil spirit,’ ” according to BillLawrence.com.[x]

Her college experiences encompassed more than one field. First, she was a graduate in art at Smith College[xi] in 1940.[xii] Mary received a teaching fellowship at Oak Lane Country Day School - Scholland.

In 1941, when the war broke out, she was a teacher at Booth School in Devon, PA. She taught for a term then studied map-making using aerial photographs at Bryn Mawr College.[xiii]

It was the aerial mapping that sparked a dream. She spent every spare moment learning navigation and practicing flying at a nearby field, according to an Airforce Together We Served website page created/owned by SSgt Geoffrey Howson to remember her. At the same time, she worked for the U. S. Geological Survey Office in Washington, D.C.[xiv]

According to a 1999 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, her parents never really understood why Mary wanted to fly but they stood by her when she made that decision, the paper reported when they interviewed Mary’s brother, Arthur.[xv]

HER MILITARY STORY

Mary Howson reported for duty in Sweetwater Texas on November 1, 1943[xvi] having completed the necessary 35 hours of logged certified flying time that was an entrance requirement for the WASPs.[xvii] It must have been quite a stressful yet proud time for her folks back home as her brother Arthur entered the service just five days before her on October 27, 1943[xviii] and brother Richard was serving in the Navy leaving only too-young Robert back home.

Although men in the military learned to fly from scratch, they did not want a bunch of women coming in who did not know how to fly. Women had to set aside every penny in order to pay for flying lessons which could cost as much as $500.[xix] In addition, Mary faced many challenges when she joined the WASPs, according to an Issaquah Veterans’ of Foreign Wars program. Among those challenges were that Mary had to pay her own way to training and buy her uniforms, despite having less pay and at that time not being treated as real service members.[xx]

An AAF MOS 770-Airplane Pilot with the Air Training Command,[xxi] Mary was a member of class 44-4. The women in WASP were given extensive flight training and relieved men of their non-combat duties. One of the jobs of women pilots were to fly new fighter planes to Europe[xxii] and another was to tow targets to give ground and air gunners training in shooting with live ammunition.[xxiii]

Mary had to have known their job was dangerous as other women pilots had frightening experiences. For example, her roommate in training, Jeanette Kapus, had her own scare when her throttle stuck and neither she, nor the mechanic flying with her, could get it unstuck requiring them to cut the engine and hope to survive an emergency landing in a field, which they did.[xxiv]

By April, Mary had 50 hours of flight training and would receiver her wings in May. Her brother remembered that plans were made for her parents to attend graduation.[xxv]

HER LAST DAY

Trainee Mary Holmes Howson was returning from a cross-country flight in a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell primary trainer.[xxvi] Mary, coming in from San Antonio, was preparing to land.

Meanwhile, another trainee Elizabeth “Jayne” Erickson was up in a Beechcraft AT-6 Texan on April 16, 1944. She was also preparing to land her first solo flight in the AT-6.[xxvii] At this point, Jayne had 71 hours of flying experience and 11 hours in the AT-6. At 1:15 in the afternoon, she was on her eighth practice of touch-and-go landings, the first three had been with an instructor. The two pilots are approaching Avenger Field from different directions and they do not realize they are on a collision course.

Jayne is busy getting ready to do practice landing – including getting the landing gear down, watching her airspeed, setting her flaps, and staying in contact with the tower, according to Airforce Together We Serve.[xxviii]

Mary had just over 48 hours in the type plane she was in and a total flying time of 163 hours. She was nearing graduation. Because Mary is returning from a longer flight, she would have had more time to prepare to land. As she approaches, she would have been looking at the tower for visual instructions.[xxix] At this point, Mary is also looking into the Sun.

Each is unaware of the other.

“Elizabeth (Jayne) was entering traffic over Avenger field on a 45-degree leg to the downwind leg from an easterly direction. Mary was also entering traffic on a 45-degree leg to the downwind leg from a westerly direction. They were both at about 800 feet altitude and had turned into their base leg perpendicular to the runway and were now headed right at each other,” according to a page by A3C Michael S. Bell at Airforce Together We Served.[xxx]

They collide. Jayne fell to the ground in her plane. Mary bailed out but was too low for her parachute to open.[xxxi]

On the ground, they knew it was Jayne who was doing the touch-and-goes but who was in the other aircraft, Mary’s mother, also named Mary Holmes Howson, recalled in an interview. Each of the trainees from class 44-W-4 landed their plane and the list of those unaccounted for grew shorter. At last there was only one plane left on the list – Mary Howson’s.[xxxii]

In clear skies with unlimited visibility[xxxiii], both WASP trainees were killed in a mid-air collision in the traffic pattern at Avenger Field on April 16, 1944.[xxxiv]

Another trainee and friend of Jayne’s, Dorothy Herthneck, thought the tower may be at fault. The overhead approach was changed to 4,000 feet before entering.[xxxv]

HER FUNERAL

After Mary was killed, on April 17th, the day following the crash, a memorial service was held. There were many in attendance including the new trainees in class 44-9 who had just begun training that day.[xxxvi]

Her body arrived home in a cheap pine box with the shipping bill being paid for by her family. A collection was taken up to pay the expenses of a classmate to accompany the body.[xxxvii] Fellow trainee, Millie Davidson Dalrymple, recalled taking up that collection as one of her most difficult WASP memories.[xxxviii]

At that time, because WASPs were not considered military,[xxxix] Mary was not allowed to have a flag draped over her casket nor a military funeral. (The WASP status was retroactively changed to military in 1977.[xl])

In memories shared by Mrs. Howson, the lack of military status meant there were no benefits, no gold star to hang in the window of their home to signify they had lost a family member in the line of duty and no flag upon her coffin.[xli]

The terrible news of her death was made even more horrifying in the way the news was delivered.

“Your daughter was killed this morning. Where do you want us to ship the body,” was the wording of the telegram the family received. Four weeks after Mary’s class had graduated, Mrs. Howson took the story of that day back to Avenger Field from her home in Pennsylvania. There, she read the shocking War Department telegram to the other trainees and told them they should tell their families what to expect should they be killed in the line of duty[xlii].

Mary Howson was 25 years old and her graduation was just three weeks away.

COMMENDATIONS

2010: Mary Howson is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor at the U.S. Capitol. It is the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States Congress.[xliii]

Mary Howson’s brother, Arthur, found one of the highlights of his life in being able to attend the 2010 Congressional Medal of Honor award ceremony in Washington, D.C. honoring Mary’s dedication and service as a WASP, according to a memorial at FindAGrave.com.[xliv] She was honored by Smith College as they shared the news of their graduate.[xlv]

United States Aviator Badge

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal[xlvi]

MEMORIALS

2016: A Casket Flag Ceremony was held at the Delaware County Veterans Memorial on May 8th in honor of Mary Howson.[xlvii]

2005: The 1929 hangar on Avenger Field was opened and a 35-foot flagpole was placed as a permanent reminder of the courageous young women pilots of WWII and the freedom they helped preserve.[xlviii]

HER GRAVE

Mary Howson is interred in the Washington Memorial Chapel Churchyard at Valley Forge National Park in Pennsylvania.[xlix] Her silver wings, presented posthumously, are embedded in her marker at the cemetery.[l] The marker reads “Beloved Daughter of Richard and Mary Howson Who Lost Her Life as Member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.”[li]