WASP Mary Hartson
43-W-5
(11 January 1917- 14 August 1944)
The first Oregon
WASP to lose her life while flying on duty was 27-year-old Mary Hartson.
 |
| WASP Pilot Mary Hartson |
Mary was a Portland
native who graduated from Washington High. Soon after graduation she began
working in Washington, D.C. as a clerk in the Federal Security Agency’s General
Consul Office. The agency was in charge of food and drug safety as well as the Social
Security program.
While in Washington,
Mary received a scholarship for the Civilian Pilot Training Program that taught
her to fly and earned her a pilot license. Within a year she began her six
months of training with the WASP.
 |
| Women Airforce Service Pilot Mary Haertson |
Although her first
assignment was the Air Transport Command at New Castle Air Base, in Delaware, within
a few weeks orders quickly began sending her from one Army airfield to another.
On August 14, 1944,
18 months after her WASP graduation, the sky was clear, winds from the south
were light, and temperatures were simmering toward 103 degrees. Mary took off
in a BT-13 from the Perrin Army Airfield in Texas with Staff Sergeant Orville
Eitzen in the rear seat.
This was a basic
test flight just to check out the plane’s recently repaired radio. About 15
miles north of the runway, the aircraft suddenly stalled and spun into the
ground. There were no witnesses and the cause of the crash was never
determined.
When found, both had
their harnesses unfastened as if preparing to jump, but for some reason, they
never got the chance.
Mary Hartson came
home to Portland for a funeral service and the placing of her ashes in
Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial Mausoleum.
Orville Eitzen, also 27, had married
just two years earlier. He returned to his wife’s hometown of Shenandoah, Iowa
for burial.
RIP
