Womens Airforce Service Pilots
WASP Elizabeth “Betty” Mae Scott,
Class 44-W-3
(26 July 1921 – 8 July
1944)
(Excerpt from To Live
and Die a WASP)
On July 8, the day before Susan Clarke’s funeral and the day
after Paula Loop’s death, another woman was already falling from the sky.
Bettie Mae Scott (44-W-3) was engaged to be married. It had
been a whirlwind romance with Lieutenant Frank Cramer, a flight instructor and
P-38 pilot stationed at the Waco Army Airbase near
Waco, Texas. The two had met
not long after Bettie’s graduation from Avenger field in mid April and her
returned from a ten-day visit home. They planned to marry at the end of July
1944, perhaps on Bettie’s 23rd birthday. Bettie was born July 26, 1921, in
Monrovia, California, a small town at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, a
few miles east of Pasadena. Her father, Frank, had been police chief in the
town since 1926 and had been a city policeman since 1913. Bettie was Frank and
Virgel Scott’s oldest daughter and the third of their four children. …
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| WASP Pilot Bettie Scott with Fiance Lt. Frank Cramer |
Less than three weeks before her 23rd birthday,
July 8, 1944, Bettie was walking beside a BT-13 Valiant on the flight apron at Blackland Army Airfield in Waco.
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| WASP Pilot Elizabeth Mae Scott |
She
had already checked the maintenance sheet on the plane and before taking off
was doing her final preflight walk-around. The damaged Valiant was now repaired and it was Bettie’s job to see if it was
airworthy enough for a male trainee pilot to fly. Just before 8:30 that
morning, she climbed into the cockpit, continued her preflight checklist, and
fired up themotor. As she left the runway, the plane began to climb at too
steep of an angle. Reaching 100 feet and no longer able to gather enough wind
under its wings, the plane stalled, began to roll, and dropped. It smashed down
onto its back, instantly killing Bettie.
Later investigation would show that
mechanics missed defects in the tail section of the aircraft and Bettie never
saw them during her walk-around.
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| WASP Pilot Elizabeth Scott |
RIP
