President Obama Signs WASP Bill

I am hoping Liz Strofus is smiling in heaven. After it was passed by Congress, President Barack Obama signed on Friday the bill that allows for the ashes of female pilots who served in the air forces in World War II to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, were buried there from 2002-15. But then Army Secretary John McHugh ruled that they should not have been allowed in. During the war, Congress defeated a bill granting them military status. Thirty-eight women died during their service and Congress would not pay to send their bodies home.

The WASPs were recognized as veterans in 1977 and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

Liz Strofus of Faribault was one of them. Today, hopefully, she is smiling with those 38 who died in the war and then ones who, like her, have been called home.