Excerpt from the Rocky Mountain News
This is what Grace wrote on the back of this picture:
P-47 D Thunderbolt At Wright-Patterson Field and Army Air Base November 15, 1944 Grace Pitkin Birge, W.A.S.P. Attached to: The Ferrying Division - Air Transport Command "This P-47 D was being ferried by me from the factory at Evansville, Indiana - Republic Thunderbolt Factory, to the training base at Hartford, Connecticut." The P-47 D, weighing nine tons with guns, rockets and fuel, was powered by a 16 cylinder, 2800 horsepower Pratt & Whitney engine. This fighter - bomber was affectionately called the "Jug", short for Juggernaut. Grace Birge-Mayfield, commissioned 1st Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve
Birge, Grace (b. 17 JUL 1913, d. 8 AUG 1994) Note: From The Rocky Mountain News, August 13, 1994, Page 72a "Grace Mayfield, teacher, WWII pilot" "Grace Birge Mayfield, a World War II pilot and longtime Denver teacher, was buried Friday at Fort Logan National Cemetery. But her spirit soared in the skies as the planes she loved flew over the ceremony. Four planes saluted Mrs. Mayfield, including the type she captained as an elite member of the Women's Airforce Service Pilots during the war. "She's out there flying today," said George Mayfield Jr., the oldest of her three children. "It was just beautiful, just what she would have wanted." Mrs. Mayfield was known to her friends as "Molly" after the Rocky Mountain News advice columnist. She was 81. She died Aug. 8 after a month-long battle with meningitis. Until last month, she was healthy and vibrant. She swam laps every day near her Denver home. She continued to fly her own plane until 1987. "If I could say anything about her other than her courage, she was fiercely independent," George Mayfield said. "She was a 25-year-old in an 81-year-old's body. Her love was always flying. She was a very adventurous person," he said. Mrs. Mayfield was born July 17, 1913, in Burdett, N.Y. She was valedictorian of her high school class. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology and physical science at Asbury College in Kentucky and a master's degree in anatomy from the University of Kentucky. Mrs. Mayfield took her first flying lesson at age 13 and earned her pilot's license in 1939. In December 1942, she joined the WASPs and was stationed at Romulus Air Force Base in Detroit. As a member of the ferrying division of the Air Transport Command, she flew P-39, P-47, P-51 and P-63 propeller-driven fighters from factories to training bases. "I learned to keep my mouth shut when I heard men say that girls couldn't fly those planes," Mayfield once said. "All I know is that they couldn't find fault with us. "It was something I wanted to do, so I did it and didn't worry about what people thought." After the war, Mrs. Mayfield wanted to fly for a commercial airliner, but they considered women only for jobs as stewardesses. So Mrs. Mayfield moved to Denver to work as an air traffic controller. She then became a flight instructor for eight years for Harry Combs Mountain States Aviation, where she met her husband. She married George Mayfield, a fellow flight instructor, in October 1946. She taught all three of her children to fly. "We were all brought up in the back seat of an airplane," said George Jr. "It was a matter of her choice but also necessity. In the 1950s, women working outside the home - let alone being pilots and teachers - were not par for the course." In 1951, Mrs. Mayfield went to work for the Denver Public Schools. She taught science and the first high school aeronautics program at Thomas Jefferson High School until her retirement in 1978. Through the decades, she continued to teach flying part time. Mrs. Mayfield is survived by her former husband, George Mayfield of Littleton; two sons, George Mayfield Jr. of Castle Rock and Carl Mayfield of Littleton, and a daughter, Jacqueline Slater of Littleton; and nine grandchildren. Contributions: the Grace B. Mayfield Young Aviators Scholarship Fund at Metropolitan State College ************************************* Buried Fort Logan Cemetery, Denver, Colorado "Mayfield, Grace Pitkin Birge, b. 07/17/1913, d. 08/08/1994, Women Air Force Service Pilots, SVC PILOTS, Res: Denver, CO, Plot: 4 0 2023, bur. 08/12/1994" *************************************
