Cornelia Clark Fort (February 5, 1919 – March 21, 1943) was an American

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

who became famous for being part of two aviation-related events. The first occurred while conducting a civilian training flight at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

on December 7, 1941, when she was the first United States pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

. She and her student narrowly escaped a mid-air collision with the Japanese aircraft and a

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such a ...

attack after making an emergency landing. The following year, Fort became the second member of what was to become the

Women Airforce Service Pilots The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

or WASP. Fort was working as a WASP

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

pilot on 21 March 1943 when she became the first female pilot in

American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

to die while on active duty. She was involved in a mid-air collision and crashed ten miles south of Merkel, Texas, in Mulberry Canyon.

Early life

Fort was born on February 5, 1919, to a wealthy and prominent family in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

; her father, Rufus Elijah Fort, was a founder of

National Life and Accident Insurance Company The National Life and Accident Insurance Company was an American life insurance company based in Nashville, Tennessee that operated from 1900 until it was acquired in a hostile takeover in 1982 by American General Corporation. History Foun ...

. She received a high school certificate from the Ward-Belmont School in 1936. She graduated from

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

in 1939. After college, Fort joined the Junior League of Nashville. She showed an early interest in flying, ultimately training for and earning her pilot's license in Nashville. She was the second woman in Tennessee to get her commercial license and the first woman in Tennessee to get her instructors' license. She applied to many flying schools and was accepted as an instructor at a

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

flight training school. While there, she was offered a position in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, which she accepted.

Flying career

Pearl Harbor attack

While working as a civilian pilot instructor at

, Cornelia Fort inadvertently became one of the first witnesses to the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

that brought the United States into

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. On December 7, 1941, Fort was in the air near Pearl Harbor teaching takeoffs and landings to a student pilot in an Interstate Cadet monoplane. Her airplane and a few other civilian aircraft were the only U.S. planes in the air near the harbor at that time. Fort saw a military airplane flying directly toward her and swiftly grabbed the controls from her student to pull up over the oncoming craft. It was then she saw the rising sun insignia on the wings. Within moments, she saw billows of black smoke coming from Pearl Harbor and bombers flying in. She quickly landed the plane at John Rodgers civilian airport near the mouth of Pearl Harbor. The pursuing

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...

strafed her plane and the runway as she and her student ran for cover. The airport manager was killed and two other civilian planes did not return that morning.

Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron

With all civilian flights grounded in Hawaii, Fort returned to the mainland in early 1942. She made a short movie promoting

war bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are Security (finance)#Debt, debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an un ...

s that was successful and led to speaking engagements. Later that year, Nancy Love recruited her to serve in the newly established Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), precursor to the

. She was the second woman accepted into the service. The WAFS ferried military planes to bases within the United States.

Death

Stationed at the 6th Ferrying Group base at

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, Cornelia Fort became the first WAFS fatality. On March 21, 1943, while flying in formation en route from Long Beach to Love Field in Dallas, the left wing of her BT-13 was struck by the landing gear of flight officer Frank Stamme Jr.'s plane. Stamme had been flying too close to Fort's plane, approaching her and then pulling back. On one of the close passes, the collision took place, breaking off the tip of her wing and six feet of leading edge. He was able to control his plane, but Fort went into an irreversible dive and crashed. The accident occurred ten miles south of Merkel, Texas in Mulberry Canyon, Texas. At the time of the accident, Cornelia Fort was one of the most accomplished pilots of the WASPs. The footstone of her grave is inscribed, "Killed in the Service of Her Country."Rickman
p. 119

Legacy

Cornelia Fort was portrayed in the film ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' () is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, from both American and Japanese positions. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard F ...

'' by actress Jeff Donnell. The Cornelia Fort Airpark in East Nashville is named after her.

References

External links

PBS American Experience biography of Cornelia Fort

National Museum of the USAF, fact sheet on Cornelia Fort
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World War II Veteran's Survey for Cornelia Fort
Tennessee Virtual Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fort, Cornelia 1919 births 1943 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II Aviators from Tennessee Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States People from Nashville, Tennessee Sarah Lawrence College alumni Women Airforce Service Pilots personnel American women flight instructors American flight instructors Members of the Junior League Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943 Victims of mid-air collisions Accidental deaths in Texas