Thursday, 4:30 PM
Women honored for helping win war
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff
METHUEN -- It was World War II, and while Rosie the Riveter was helping the military effort in defense plants, most women were not allowed to do much more than to volunteer as nurses overseas or tend to the home front.
But in 1942, 24-year-old Sara Payne Hayden wanted something unheard of — to fly military planes.
Despite her family’s objections, Hayden was one of the few women to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the first female pilots in the US armed forces. Her job: to test fly previously damaged planes to make sure that they were ready for the men headed for combat.
"We did things the men weren’t expected to do," said Hayden, now 87, who still fits into her petite 62-year-old navy blue WASP uniform. "I did not think about the danger or anything. I had a job to do, and I did it. And you just knew you had to have it right. There wasn’t any room for mistakes."
Hayden, along with a Tuskegee airman and other notable World War II pilots living in Massachusetts, will be honored at Hanscom Air Force Base on Thursday, the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
