By Wesley G. Hughes, San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sun
Photos by Joe Gromelski, Stars and Stripes Stars and Stripes online edition, Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Alma L. Fornal stepped away from the bowling lane to explain why she is being honored Wednesday in Washington.
''I was a test pilot on the AT-6 and I flew a B-26 Marauder towing a gunnery target over the Gulf of Mexico," the Highland woman said during an interview last week.
During World War II, Fornal was a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and she's justifiably proud of it, though the U.S. government took a long time getting around to recognizing the work of the ladies who played a major role in winning the war and helped pave the way for women in the military.
Congress is attempting to make up for lost time, inviting Fornal and the 200-plus surviving WASPs to Washington, D.C., where they will be awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal in the Capitol Rotunda.
Last week at the Del Rosa Lanes, Fornal, who will be 90 in July, was bowling with her league, The Young in Heart.
She scored at least three strikes and two spares and did high fives with her teammates. Asked the name of her team, she said, "We're No. 6. We're not very creative."
To call her spry, would be a disservice. This active woman also plays tennis and sails.
There were 25,000 applicants when the WASPs was created. Only 1,900 were accepted and just 1,078 earned their wings.
And it was a dangerous business. Thirty-Eight of the women died in service.
Asked about close calls during her time as a WASP, Fornal said, "No. I was very lucky."
In 1977, the WASP survivors finally were awarded the GI Bill of Rights, which in addition to home-buying and education assistance, guaranteed them medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Fornal had high praise for Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the wartime President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General H.H. (Hap) Arnold and famed woman aviator Jacqueline Cochran, all of whom aided in the creation of the WASP.
''Women can do that," Fornal quoted the former First Lady as saying.
The primary requirement for WASP recruits was that they have a pilot's license, which Fornal did. Born on a Texas ranch out of Morgan, she attended the University of Arkansas and learned to fly. She was teaching in business college when the call came from the WASP.
WASP training was just like the military.
''We marched everywhere and we didn't have much time (for social life)," Fornal said.
While serving at the base in Sweetwater, Texas, male pilots from a base near Abilene would make forced landings at Sweetwater to get a chance to meet the WASPs.
''That didn't go on long," she said. "A general heard about it and put an end to it."
Her first love of the planes she flew was the AT-6, which was built to train fighter pilots. She went through basic, primary and advanced flying school while a WASP and was transferred to Kendall Field, Fla., where she piloted the B-26 Marauder, a powerful twin-engine medium bomber with a 71-foot wingspan and 1,900 horsepower engines.
In combat the Marauder carried a crew of seven. Her Marauder carried a crew of three: Pilot, copilot and a male soldier who handled deploying and retracting the target.
''They wouldn't let us do it," she laughed.
When the WASP were disbanded, "They didn't even pay our way home," Fornal said.
She stayed at the base as an instructor on the Link Trainer, a flight simulator used to teach instrument flying. It was then, she met and married her husband, the late Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph Fornal, who served in the Inspector General's Office and, after retirement, completed a second career with Northrup Grumman and TRW in the space program.
Alma Fornal said she didn't do much flying after the WASP but did learn to fly a float plane and take off and land on water. A few times, pilots offered to let her take the controls but mostly she declined. The one time she didn't, she flew the plane for a while but told the pilot he would have to land.
Fornal's daughter, Jean Hitchman is with Northrup Grumman. Her son, John Fornal, is a construction superintendent with Matich Corp. She has two grandchildren.
The family is accompanying her to Washington for the big day.
Fornal was packing on Friday and said she had just received a telephone call from a woman Air Force sergeant, who will be her escort while in the nation's capital. Fornal said the she was pleased by the attention and it was noticeable in her voice.
Photographs from her days in the WASP show a petite girl-next-door-type. She says she was 5-4 and about 120 pounds back then.
''I never was skinny," she said, adding: "Fortunately, I've been healthy. That's the important thing."
Her home is in a gated community in Highland and she has a condo in Carlsbad, which she visits on a regular basis.
''Kids of the WASPs still have no understanding of what we went through," Fornal said. "I have sent some of my memorabilia to Texas Women's University, which has an archive."
San Bernardino, California. I was born on July 23, 1920 in Morgan, Texas, South of Dallas, Texas. I was attending the University of Arkansas when I got my first chance to go up in a small aircraft. After that I saved every penny I could to fly. For the war effort in 1941, I decided to put my college education on hold in my 3rd year, and took a job at Keesler Field Air Force Hospital as Chief Clerk in the Registrar's Office. I continued my flying at a local airport with an instructor, Lloyd Catlin, who gave me lots of confidence, and I soloed after six hours.
While working one day, not busy, I read in the newspaper about the WASP. You had to have two years of college and a private aircraft license. I had both. My friend and instructor, Llyod Catlin flew me to Dallas where I had an interview with Nancy Love. I was accepted, told to report for class of 44.5.
After graduation, I was sent to Napier Field, Alabama to do test piloting on the AT-6s. Then I was sent to Tyndall Field, Florida to towing targets with the B-26. The Officers Club housed us in a barracks with nurses and WAC officers. We ate at the officer's club restaurant, along with all the other bachelor men officers. It was there I met Joe Fornal. Gene Raymond, the movie actor, was at our base one weekend. He came to the mess hall and all of us WASP were giving him the eye. Later at the Officer's Club, this Office, Joe Fornal, who looked just like Gene Raymond to me, gave me a big smile. He came over and we got acquainted.
After deactivation, I stayed on by taking a job as Link trainer instructor along with several other WASPs, as none of us were ready to let go of the life we loved. Also I had fallen in love by that time and wasn't ready to leave. Joe and I were married at Tyndall Field, Florida on June 23, 1945. He was an Air Force Captain, but not a flying officer. We stayed there a while; Joe decided to get out of the Air Force. We lived near my family in Gulfport, Mississippi where I worked as a control tower operator. We didn't like the hours I worked so we moved to Northport, Long Island. I got a job there at the Veteran's Hospital in the recreational department planning trips, parties, and working on a hospital newspaper for the veterans.
Joe worked for Republic Aviation on Long Island; they folded, then he worked for the Long Island Lighting Company. After a few years he was offered a Permanent Officer's Commission in the Air Force. He accepted and was sent to Albrook Air Force Base, Panama City, and Canal Zone. I took a job at the Air Force Officer's Club as Chief Accountant. We were soon blessed with our son John. Next we were sent to Bitburg, Germany. There we had our daughter Jean. During that time we traveled all over to every country stating our life long hobby of traveling. Next we were sent to the Pentagon and lived in Arlington, Virginia. I attended George Washington University and majored in early childhood education.
When the children were in junior high, I stared teaching, mostly first and second grades. I taught 16 years until I retired in 1982. JoeÃ's last transfer was Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino and we have lived there ever since. Joe retired from the Air Force and went to work for TRW at Norton Air Force working on the guidance system for missiles.
I resumed my interest in oil painting. We spend four or five days a week at our condo in Carlsbad, California and the weekends in San Bernardino where we enjoy our two grandsons who live very near us. I play tennis, paint; we go sailing. We go on lots of cruises and enjoy polka dancing. The WASP experience was great.
San Bernardino, California. I was born on July 23, 1920 in Morgan, Texas, South of Dallas, Texas. I was attending the University of Arkansas when I got my first chance to go up in a small aircraft. After that I saved every penny I could to fly. For the war effort in 1941, I decided to put my college education on hold in my 3rd year, and took a job at Keesler Field Air Force Hospital as Chief Clerk in the Registrar's Office. I continued my flying at a local airport with an instructor, Lloyd Catlin, who gave me lots of confidence, and I soloed after six hours.