Readers React: Are WASP pilots truly veterans?

To the editor: Both the news article regarding burying the remains of Women Airforce Service Pilots (or WASPs) during World War II at Arlington National Cemetery and the one letter to the editor border on silly. My favorite uncle was a decorated Air Force pilot during the war, and I discussed this subject with him frequently. I was a military officer during the Vietnam War.

What the news article left out was that the WASPs were civil-service employees with civil-service pay and benefits. They were free to quit when they wanted, and some of them did just that following training.

In contrast, if a regular military pilot were to simply quit during doing World War II, he would have been court-martialed.

This is not to minimize the contribution these women made, and I have no quarrel with giving them most of the veterans’ benefits. But I also have no quarrel with the Army taking the position that since WASPs could leave at any time, it is not really fair to give them a cemetery plot.

Thomas Murtaugh, Los Angeles

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