Cornelia Clark Fort (February 5, 1919 – March 21, 1943) was a United States aviator who became famous for being part of two aviation-related events. The first occurred while conducting a civilian training flight at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

on December 7, 1941, when she was the first United States pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

. She and her student narrowly escaped a mid-air collision with the Japanese aircraft and a

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such ...

attack after making an emergency landing. The following year, Fort became the second member of what was to become the

Women Airforce Service Pilots The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

or WASP. Fort was working as a WASP ferry pilot on 21 March 1943 when she became the first female pilot in

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

to die on active duty. She was involved in a mid-air collision and crashed ten miles south of

Merkel, Texas Merkel is a city in Taylor County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,590 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Abilene metropolitan area. Geography Merkel is located 17 miles west of Abilene near Interstate Highway 20. The town has a to ...

in Mulberry Canyon, Texas.

Early life

Fort was born to a wealthy and prominent

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, family; her father, Rufus Elijah Fort, was a founder of

National Life and Accident Insurance Company The National Life and Accident Insurance Company is a former life insurance company that was based in Nashville, Tennessee. National Life and Accident began in 1900 as the National Sick and Accident Association, a mutual company. It was reorga ...

. She received a high school certificate from the Ward-Belmont School in 1936. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1939. After college, Fort joined the Junior League of Nashville. She showed an early interest in flying, ultimately training for and earning her pilot's license in Nashville, TN. She was the second woman in Tennessee to get her commercial license and the first woman in Tennessee to get her instructors' license. She applied to many flying schools and was accepted as an instructor at a

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

flight training school. While there, she was offered a position in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, which she accepted.

Flying career

Pearl Harbor attack

While working as a civilian pilot instructor at

, Cornelia Fort inadvertently became one of the first witnesses to the Japanese

that brought the United States into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. On December 7, 1941, Fort was in the air near Pearl Harbor teaching takeoffs and landings to a student pilot in an

Interstate Cadet The Interstate Cadet was an American two-seat tandem, high wing, single-engine monoplane light aircraft. Around 320 of these aircraft were produced between the years 1941 and 1942 by the Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation based in El ...

monoplane. Hers and a few other civilian aircraft were the only U.S. planes in the air near the harbor at that time. Fort saw a military airplane flying directly toward her and swiftly grabbed the controls from her student to pull up over the oncoming craft. It was then she saw the rising sun insignia on the wings. Within moments, she saw billows of black smoke coming from Pearl Harbor and bombers flying in. She quickly landed the plane at John Rodgers civilian airport near the mouth of Pearl Harbor. The pursuing

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usual ...

strafed her plane and the runway as she and her student ran for cover. The airport manager was killed and two other civilian planes did not return that morning.

Womans Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS)

With all civilian flights grounded in Hawaii, Fort returned to the mainland in early 1942. She made a short movie promoting

war bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...

s that was successful and led to speaking engagements. Later that year, Nancy Love recruited her to serve in the newly established

Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

, precursor to the

(WASP). She was the second woman accepted into the service. The WAFS ferried military planes to bases within the United States.

Death

Stationed at the 6th Ferrying Group base at

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, Cornelia Fort became the first WAFS fatality. On March 21, 1943, while flying in formation en route from Long Beach to Love Field in Dallas, the left wing of her

BT-13 The Vultee BT-13 Valiant is an American World War II-era basic (a category between primary and advanced) trainer aircraft built by Vultee Aircraft for the United States Army Air Corps, and later US Army Air Forces. A subsequent variant of the ...

was struck by the landing gear of flight officer Frank Stamme Jr.'s plane. Stamme had been flying too close to Fort's plane, approaching her and then pulling back. On one of the close passes, the collision took place, breaking off the tip of her wing and six feet of leading edge. He was able to control his plane, but Fort went into an irreversible dive and crashed. The accident occurred ten miles south of Merkel, Texas in Mulberry Canyon, Texas. At the time of the accident, Cornelia Fort was one of the most accomplished pilots of the WASPs. The footstone of her grave is inscribed, "Killed in the Service of Her Country."Rickman
p. 119

Legacy

Cornelia Fort was portrayed in the film ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji ...

'' by actress Jeff Donnell. The

Cornelia Fort Airpark Cornelia Fort Airpark was a privately owned, public-use airport located five nautical miles (9 km) northeast of the central business district of Nashville, in Davidson County, Tennessee, United States. It is named in honor of Nashvillian, Cornel ...

East Nashville East Nashville is an area east of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville in Tennessee across the Cumberland River. The area is mostly residential and mixed-use areas with businesses lining the main boulevards. The main thoroughfares are Gallatin ...

is named after her.

References

External links

PBS American Experience biography of Cornelia FortNational Museum of the USAF, fact sheet on Cornelia Fort
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World War II Veteran's Survey for Cornelia Fort
Tennessee Virtual Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fort, Cornelia 1919 births 1943 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II Aviators from Tennessee Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States People from Nashville, Tennessee Sarah Lawrence College alumni Women Airforce Service Pilots personnel American women flight instructors American flight instructors Members of the Junior League Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943