JOYCE H. KRESS 1919- March 1,2009
WAC who met Orville Wright and was on 1945 test flight of Enola Gay
March 5th Chicago Tribune by Joan Glangrasse Kates
"Joyce H. Kress rubbed elbows with giants of aviation and flew in one of history's best known aircraft."
As a newly enlisted member of the Women's Army Corps in 1942, she had dinner at the home of airplane inventor Orville Wright and his family. "It was Christmas, and she was one of a small number of WACs who couldn't go home for the holidays and so Wright took pity on them," said her daughter.
Later that year, she met Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the world's first practical helicopter.
In the early days of August 1945, she flew aboard the Enola Gay just days before it dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima. Her daughter Barbara continued, "She had no idea what the plane was going to be used for. All she knew is that they were testing it out to make sure there weren't any problems with its fuel line."
She also was pictured in a popular recruitment poster while serving. From 1942 to 1946, she served as a technical sergeant and for sixteen years in the Air Force Reserve.
Just the fact that she was a member of the WACs who helped open the door for women serving in the military and a World War II veteran would have been enough. Talk about a person meeting history.
One of America's Greatest Generation.
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