Talk:Millie Bailey

Birth date
This source has Bailey celebrating her hundredth birthday in February 2018; while this one has her celebrating being 102 in October 2020. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:32, 24 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Another source also suggests February. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:53, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

content moved from article
(pasting from article) The army didn't have aviation assets until the Army Air Corps split, that established the Air Force leaving aviation assets in both the army and Air force. Here is an article on women in aviation during that time. The WASPS (women Air service pilots) kept black women out while allowing Asian and Indian women in even though there were 2 black ladies with all the aviation licenses required. Her uniform insignia is not showing her as being a pilot and the WASPS were civilians and were not given medals or military benefits until 1977, over 30 years after WWII.

After further research I found out she was an officer in the WACs (women's army corps), not a military pilot. There were no military women officers flying until 1974. If she had civilian flight training she may have been the one black pilot that they allowed into the Tuskegee Airmen. There was only one and they did not allow her to fly, no women flew in combat but she was assigned to them and helped them complete their mission. Sadly this was all before desegregation because the 2 black ladies should have had those opportunities in the WASPs.

Today we have hundreds of black women flying both in the military and commercial aviation. Women make up 6 percent of all pilots and black women are about 1 percent of all pilots today. Here is an article that has a good history of all this black women in aviation in WWII...https://www.teenvogue.com/story/women-airforce-service-pilots-aided-american-war-efforts-with-help-from-these-women-of-color/amp — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:5b0:4ac8:2138:b849:dfd4:4101:4e68 (talk • contribs)


 * I moved the content above out of the article to here, as it seems to be more a discussion about the topic and lacks sources.

Schazjmd  (talk)  19:51, 2 June 2021 (UTC)