Hope all of you were able to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. Thanks to the Gilbert family and many volunteers, Tecumseh enjoyed a community Thanksgiving dinner served for free to everyone in this town.
The Golden Age Center enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal, and we had a successful bake sale. Thanks to all who baked goodies, brought goodies, and bought goodies!!
We are so thankful to the city of Tecumseh for having the foresight to build a senior center for all those who are 60 years old or more. Join us for a noon meal for only $1.50. Our oldest member Clemmie Lucas will celebrate her 100th birthday on December 24th! We wish her a very happy birthday as well as those with November and December birthdays.
The center will be closed for Christmas break from Dec. 20th to Dec. 28th.
We have joy in our hearts during this holiday season, but I want to remember our heroes who served during WWII when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There was a group of female pilots who came to be known as WASP, Women Airforce Service Pilots, who immediately answered the call of our country.
This was a time when few women even worked outside the home, however, 25,000 women applied, and 1800 were accepted from every state to train at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX; 1100 finished the training and served the war effort by flying planes from the factories to airbases, towing targets for anti-aircraft training, test-piloting experimental aircraft, and training male pilots.
They flew B-24 bombers to P-51 fighter jets for over a combined 60 million miles in the air. Thirty-eight WASPs perished in the war, but these heroes were never offered Veterans’ benefits until 2010, when they were awarded Congressional Gold Metals.
The National WASP WWII Museum is located in Sweetwater, TX, where their stories are remembered. So will you join me in remembering these brave women pilots who served this nation and were almost forgotten; especially, Cornelia Fort, who was the first female pilot in the history of the U.S. military to give her life for our country.
These women paved the way for women in the military and for female commercial pilots today. May we always be thankful throughout the year for our nation; not just at Thanksgiving!!
