Ramon Sanromà 🐲🖖🏼

🇺🇸 A young woman from Nashville, Tennessee, survived the attack on Pearl Harbor from the cockpit of a training plane. She was just 22. If you’ve seen Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), you may remember the civilian flight instructor suddenly surrounded by Japanese aircraft. Her name was Cornelia Fort, a strikingly beautiful young woman and a skilled pilot. The woman behind that scene was real. On December 7, 1941, Cornelia was giving a flying lesson over Oahu when a Japanese Zero came dangerously close. She seized the controls and narrowly avoided a collision. Then she saw smoke rising over Pearl Harbor. Cornelia brought her student safely back to the airfield. She had become one of the few American pilots to witness the opening attack from the air. In September 1942, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, becoming one of the pioneering women entrusted with flying military aircraft across the United States. They served as civilians, delivering planes needed for the war effort. On March 21, 1943, another aircraft struck the BT-13 she was ferrying over Texas. Fort’s aircraft crashed, killing her. She became the first American woman pilot to die in the line of duty flying for the U.S. military. She was 24. Hollywood preserved a moment of her life. Her name deserves to be remembered, too. Follow @Vanguard_WW2 for more overlooked stories of World War II. See the first post for real photos of Cornelia.