WW II Veteran Kathleen Hilbrandt Laid to Rest with Military Honors. She Was a Member of the WASPs

From the August 18, 2021,  Tap Into Rahway (New Jersey).

Her funeral was delayed a year because of COVID, but arrangements were made for August 14, 2021.

Kathleen "Kay" Ann Hilbrandt (1924-2020) during World War II was one  of only 1,074 women to take part in the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program  Though, serving in non-combat positions,  these female pilots offered indispensable assistance on behalf of the war effort by  ferrying planes from factories to bases and flight-testing aircraft.  This freed up men to fly in combat areas.

According to the National Women's History Museum, they were, "the first women to fly for the U.S. military, paving the way for women to serve equally in the U.S. Air Force."

Hilbrandt had cultivated a love of flying from a young age.  Raised in Garwood, she began taking fly lessons right out of high school.  In 1943, she was working for Eastern Aircraft, a division of  General Motors, becoming one of the first female  mechanics for the TBM Avenger torpe4do bomber.

By the time she was 19, she already had 85 flight hours and was immediately accepted into the WASPs, and stationed at Eagle Pass Army Air Field in Texas during the war,

After the war, she returned home and became a flight instructor from 1945-1948.    She also assisted veterans, instructing them under the G.I. Bill of Rights and helped them earn private and commercial  pilot licenses.

--GreGen