This is True®
by Randy Cassingham

Randy Cassingham’s Honorary Unsubscribe Recognizes the Unknown, the Forgotten and the Obscure People who Had an Impact on Our Lives

WASP

Evelyn Pinckert Brier

In the 1930s, Pinckert worked for the Southern California Gas Co., and was taught by a co-worker how to fly. She then married her flight instructor, Joe Brier, and in 1939 went on to become a flight instructor herself — the first female flight instructor licensed by the then-new Civil Aviation Authority. She didn’t just stay with the basics: “I was the only one in this area licensed to teach aerobatics, which I loved,” she said years later. When her husband flew for the Army Air Corps in World War II, she joined up too — as a non-combat “WASP” (Women Airforce Service Pilot), helping the war effort by ferrying planes, including B-17 bombers, and training male pilots. She and her husband operated a private airport in San Bernardino, Calif., for 40 years, and ran a charter service that took people to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Evelyn “Pinky” Brier retired from flying when she was 70, and died January 20 from pneumonia. She was 98.

From This is True for 20 January 2008


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