WASP Marian Toevs’ Class: 43-W-8.
Her parents, John and Nelle, were at
their daughter’s graduation, proudly pinning on Marian’s silver
 |
| WASP Marian Toevs |
On January 1, 1944, Marian reported to LeMoore Army
Airfield, an Army flight training school in California’s Central Valley. Her
primary assignment was to test fly BT-13 and BT-15 airplanes, recently repaired
by the field’s maintenance crew.
Early in the morning, Friday, February 18, Marian checked
out a parachute, walked to the flight line, and climbed into a BT-13. She fired
up the engine, completed her preflight check, then taxied out to the runway.
Sources say she was flying to Fresno, California, and perhaps that was her ultimate
destination, but Fresno is barely 30 air miles from LeMoore, hardly enough time
in the air to fully checkout a previously damaged or faulty airplane. Add the
fact that Marian’s BT-13 finally wound up nearly 125 miles northwest away from
Fresno, in the eastern
 |
| WASP Marian Toevs |
Twenty-six-year old Marian crashed just a block away from where
her Uncle Otto Toevs lived in a San Jose, California neighborhood. She had
visited with Otto and his wife just two weeks before and it was Uncle Otto who
ultimately identified her body for authorities.
“The motor was still going when it hit,” Anthony Gullo said.
He had been only 75 feet from the crash. Other eyewitnesses said Marian’s plane
had been flying very low and circling, as if she were looking for a place to
land. “I was the second one to reach the spot,” Gullo said. “The girl’s body
was thrown clear of the wreckage. She was blonde and looked about 20 years old.
Her face was bloody.”
At about 11 in the morning, the plane had suddenly nosed up
and then plunged to earth. “We watched it disappear behind some houses,” one
witness said, “then we heard an awful noise and the crash.”
RIP Marian—One of the 38 WASP who died while on duty
