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 ambivalent support of
United States 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 Lee were eager to join the WASP and responded to interview requests by Cochran. Members of the WASP reported to
Avenger Field, in
Sweetwater, Texas for an arduous six-month training program. Lee was accepted into the 4th class, 43 W 4. She 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 and were paid through the civil service. No military benefits were offered and when WASP pilots died 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 initially 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, Lee was assigned to the Third Ferrying Group at
Romulus, Michigan. Their assignment was critical to the war effort. They delivered aircraft, which were being manufactured in large numbers in 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, Lee described Romulus as "a 7-day workweek, with little time off." She was a favorite with her fellow pilots, known for her sense of humor and being mischievous. Lee often used her lipstick to inscribe Chinese characters on the tail of her plane and the planes of her fellow pilots. Fellow WASP pilot Sylvia Dahmes Clayton recalled: "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." Lee and these others were the first women to pilot fighter aircraft for the United States military.
Death On November 10, 1944, Lee received orders to go to the
Bell Aircraft factory at
Niagara Falls, New York, where she was to fly a P-63 Kingcobra aircraft to
Great Falls, Montana. During the war Lee and the other Pursuit pilots delivered over 5,000 fighters to Great Falls, which was a link in supplying
Soviet allies fighting the Nazi forces with planes under the
Lend-Lease program. Shortly after 2 p.m., Lee was cleared to land in Great Falls with a large number of P-63's approaching the airport at the same time. There was confusion on the part of the
control tower, resulting in Lee's plane and another P-63 colliding. The aircraft were engulfed in flames and Lee was pulled from the burning wreckage of her airplane with her flight jacket still smoldering. Hazel Lee was laid to rest in a non-military funeral and buried alongside her brother on a sloping hill in
River View Cemetery, Thirty-eight WASP pilots died while in service during the years of World War II, and Lee was the last to die during the program. On July 1, 2009, she and all other WASP pilots, whether living, deceased, or killed during the war, were approved for a
Congressional Gold Medal. In 2004, Hazel Ying Lee was inducted into Oregon's Aviation Hall of Honor, a fraternity of native Oregonians who made historic contributions to aviation.
Derrick Wang's
musical drama Fearless, inspired by the life of Hazel Ying Lee, received its world premiere at
Opera Delaware in May 2025. ==References==