Recognizing Vietnam Veterans

Rhea-Craig members presented proclamations signed by President Barack Obama, certificates from the DAR, lapel pins, eagle tin pins and bumper stickers to 5 Vietnam Veterans at the monthly meeting of the American Legion Post in Decatur, TN on November 14, 2016. This group photo captures the smiles we shared with these men recognizing their service during this 50 year anniversary of the end of the war.

Celebrating Cornelia Fort at our November meeting

Carrie Ann Bright, Regent presented a very informative program on Cornelia Fort, from Nashville, TN, for our November meeting.

In 1940, a year after Cornelia graduated from college, took a joyride and decided she wanted to fly airplanes. She took lessons and became a pilot.

A year later she was giving a flying lesson in Hawaii when she saw Japanese warplanes heading toward Pearl Harbor. They fired on her, but she survived. The next year she was one of a small group of women chosen to be members of the Women’s Auxiliary Flying Squadron, which took new planes from factories to military bases.

Cornelia Fort was killed in a mid-air collision in 1943, becoming the first female pilot in American history to die on active duty.