Hazel Ying Lee
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Hazel Ying Lee, a legendary pilot, was born in Portland, Oregon on August 24, 1912. Hazel’s father was a merchant. Hazel’s mother devoted her energy to raising 8 children and helping with the family business. Despite the widespread Anti-Chinese bias of her time, Hazel led a full and active life. Hazel swam, played handball, loved to play cards and in her teenage years, learned how to drive.
Following graduation from High School in 1929, Hazel found a job as an elevator operator at Liebes Department Store in downtown Portland. This is one of the few jobs that a Chinese American woman could hold during this time period.
In 1932, Hazel took her first airplane ride. She loved it! At a time when less than 1% of pilots in the US were women, Hazel joined the Chinese Flying Club of Portland and took flying lessons with famed aviator Al Greenwood. Despite opposition from her mother, Hazel “had to fly.” In discussing Hazel’s love of flying, her sister Frances said, “It was the thought of doing something she loved. Hazel enjoyed the danger and doing something that was new to Chinese girls.”
In October 1932, Hazel Ying Lee became one of the first Chinese American women to earn a pilot’s license. In speaking of Hazel and the handful of other Chinese American women pilots of that time, author Judy Yung has written “Although few in number, these first Chinese American aviators, in their attempt to participate in a daring sport, broke the stereotype of the passive Chinese women and demonstrated the ability of Chinese American women to compete in a male dominated field.” While in Portland Hazel met her future husband 'Clifford' Louie Yim-Qun.
[edit] Time in China
In response to Japanese aggression against Western China in 1933, Hazel journeyed to China with the goal of joining the Chinese Air Force. Despite the need for pilots, the Chinese Air Force would not accept a woman pilot. Frustrated, Hazel instead settled in Canton and spent the next few years flying for a private airline. She was one of a very small number of women pilots in China.
In 1937, Japan invaded China. Hazel remained in China despite the war and was in Canton when hundreds of civilians were killed in Japanese air attacks. Friends speak of Hazel’s calm while bombs fell all around and remember Hazel’s effort to find shelter for friends, neighbors and family. Thanks to Hazel, all survived the bombings attacks. Following another unsuccessful effort to join the Chinese Air Force, Hazel escaped to Hong Kong and returned to the USA in 1938. In New York, Hazel worked for the Chinese government as a buyer of war materials for besieged China.
[edit] Military career
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America was drawn into World War II. As the War claimed the time and lives of American pilots, it became clear that there were not enough male pilots to sustain the War effort at home. With the active support of Army Air Force Commander Henry “Hap” Arnold, the Women Airforce Service Pilots or “WASP,” was created in 1943, under the command of famed aviator Jacqueline Cochran.
Experienced women pilots, like Hazel, were eager to join the WASP, and responded to interview requests by Cochran. Members of the WASP reported to Avenger Field, in wind swept Sweetwater, Texas for an arduous 6-month training program. Hazel was accepted into the 4th class, 43 W 4. Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the United States military.
Although flying under military command, the women pilots of the WASP were classified as civilians. They were paid through the civil service. No military benefits were offered. Even if killed in the line of duty, no military funerals were allowed. The WASPs were often assigned the least desirable missions, such as winter trips in open cockpit airplanes. Commanding officers were reluctant to give women any flying deliveries. It took an order from the head of the Air Transport Command to improve the situation.
Upon graduation, Hazel was assigned to the third Ferrying Group at Romulus, Michigan. Their assignment was critical to the war effort; Deliver aircraft, pouring out of converted automobile factories, to points of embarkation, where they would then be shipped to the European and Pacific War fronts. In a letter to her sister, Hazel described Romulus as “a 7-day workweek, with little time off.” When asked to describe Hazel’s attitude, a fellow member of the WASP summed it up in Hazel’s own words, “I’ll take and deliver anything.”
Described by her fellow pilots as “calm and fearless,” Hazel had two forced landings. One landing took place in a Kansas wheat field. A farmer, pitchfork in hand, chased her around the plane while shouting to his neighbors that the Japanese had invaded Kansas. Alternately running and ducking under her wing, Hazel finally stood her ground. She told the farmer who she was and demanded that he put the pitchfork down. He complied.
Hazel was a favorite with just about all of her fellow pilots. She had a great sense of humor and a marvelous sense of mischief. Hazel used her lipstick to inscribe Chinese characters on the tale of her plane and the planes of her fellow pilots. One lucky fellow who happened to be a bit on the chubby side, had his plane dubbed (unknown to him) “Fat Ass.”
Hazel was in demand when a mission was RON (Remaining Overnight) In a big city or in a small country town, she could always find a Chinese restaurant, supervise the menu, and often cook the food herself. She was a great cook. Fellow WASP pilot Sylvia Dahmes Clayton observed that “Hazel provided me with an opportunity to learn about a different culture at a time when I did not know anything else. She expanded my world and my outlook on life.”
In September 1944, Hazel was sent to Pursuit School at Brownsville, Texas for intensive training. She was part of Class 44-18 Flight B and went on to be among the 134 women pilots who flew “Pursuit,” that is faster, high powered fighters such as the P-63 Kingcobra, P-51 Mustang and P-39 Airacobra. Hazel’s favorite was the Mustang.
Hazel and the others were the first women to pilot fighter aircraft for the United States military.
On November 10th, 1944, Hazel received orders to go to the Bell Aircraft factory at Niagara Falls and pick up a P-63 and deliver the plane to Great Falls, Montana. (A side note: During the War, Hazel and the other Pursuit Pilots delivered over 5,000 Fighters to Great Falls. Great Falls was the link in supplying our Russia allies with planes. From there, male pilots flew the fighters on to Alaska, where Russian pilots waited to fly the planes home.)
Bad weather delayed the mission at Fargo, North Dakota. On Thanksgiving morning, the weather cleared and Hazel was able to leave Fargo. A little after 2 P.M., Hazel was cleared to land in Great Falls. A large number of P-63’s approached the airport at the same time. There was confusion on the part of the control tower. Upon landing, Hazel’s plane and another P-63 collided, and were engulfed in flames. Hazel was pulled from the burning wreckage of her airplane, her flight jacket still smoldering.
Two days later, on November 25, 1944, Hazel Ying Lee died from the burns she received in the accident. Only 3 days after learning of Hazel’s death, the Lee family received another telegram. Hazel’s brother, Vic, serving with the US Tank Corp, was killed in combat in France. As they prepared to bury Hazel and Vic, the family picked out a burial site in a Portland, Oregon cemetery.
The cemetery refused to allow the family to bury Hazel and Vic in the chosen spot, citing cemetery policy that did not allow Asians to be buried “in the White section.” After a lengthy battle, the Lee family prevailed. Hazel Ying Lee was laid to rest in a non-military funeral, and buried alongside her brother, on a sloping hill, overlooking the Columbia River.
For over three decades, members of the WASP and their supporters attempted to secure military status for the women pilots. In March of 1979, following United States Congressional approval of Public Law 95-202, the efforts of the Women Airforce Service pilots were finally recognized and military status was finally granted.
38 pilots of the WASP died while in service to their country during the difficult years of World War II. Hazel Ying Lee was the last to die.
