Page 6 - DFCS News Magazine Summer 2015

Women of the DFC - A Historical Perspective by Bruce Huffman
We are beginning to build the excitement around our 2016 Dis nguished Flying Cross Conven on slated for Dallas, Texas beginning on September 25th thru the 28th. Dallas a ords a cen- tral loca on stepped in avia on history and our able Conven on commi ee, led by Joseph Geary, has put together an exci ng i nerary that we will be sharing with you over the coming months. We were fortu-
nate to secure Eileen M. Col- lins, former Space Shu le Commander, DFC Society member, and successful busi- ness leader as our keynote speaker for our gala in keep- ing with our theme “Heroic Women of the DFC”. We have tradi onally rendered honors to unique segments of our membership at our previous conven ons and this
conven on will honor female DFC recipients. As Dr, Carl Sagan said: “You have to know the past to un- derstand the present” and it is my hope that this ar cle will bring insights to the journey women have made with regard to the Dis nguished Flying Cross.
Amelia Earhart was the rst woman to be awarded the Dis nguished Flying Cross by an Act of Congress, for her non-stop solo ight across the Atlan c. The ‘boys club’ of her era, became so outraged, that President Calvin Coolidge felt compelled to issue Ex- ecu ve Order 4601 on Mach 1, 1927, which, curi- ously enough, does not appear anywhere in the Fed- eral Register system. That Order established that the DFC medal could only be awarded to military personnel.
They thought they had their ‘problem’ solved un l along came WWII and 1st Lt. Ale- da E. Lutz who served as
a United States Army ight nurse. 1st Lt. Lutz par ci- pated in six separate ba le campaigns, con nuously served over a 20-month
period, ew on numerous air combat missions, and conducted mul ple all-weather medical evacua- ons in the combat theatres of Tuni-
sia, Italy, and France.
At the me of her death, on Dec. 28, 1944, Lutz was perhaps the most experienced ight nurse in the U.S. military service. She had the most evacua on sor es (196), most combat hours own by any ight nurse (814) and the most pa ents transported by any ight nurse (3500+). Lt. Lutz was ying in a C-47 hospital plane, evacua ng wounded soldiers from the ba lefront near Lyon, when it crashed in the vicinity of
Saint-
Chamond,
France, on
December
28, 1944,
killing all
aboard. The Dis nguished Flying Cross was posthu- mously awarded to 1st Lieutenant Aleda E. Lutz 1st Lt. Lutz also earned six ba le stars and was the rst military woman to die in a combat zone in World War II. Lt. Lutz was also awarded the Air Medal (3) OLC, the Red Cross Medal, and the Purple Heart
In World War II as well, 1st Lt. Roberta (Schilbach) Ross also served as an Army Flight Nurse, where she ew more than 100 missions, over the Himalayas, and was awarded the Dis nguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with OLC. Following the war, she went on to become a ight a endant for United Airlines. Chuck Sweeney’s research indicates there may have been Naval Nurse Corps recipients of the DFC but we have been unable to uncover the speci cs or lo- cate any of their descendants.
The combat exclusion policy (military glass ceiling) of the United States Army dates back to 1948 when The Women's Armed Services Integra on Act of 1948 speci cally excluded women from combat po- si ons. On April 28, 1993, the combat exclusion was li ed from avia on posi ons by then Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin.
One of our new Society members, BG Rhonda Cor- num, USA (Ret.), would take excep on to that 1993
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