Written by Julie Rasgorshek
Article published in Doane Magazine’s Winter 2002 issue. Lois Boien Durham ’43 passed away on June 22, 2008.
While most girls her age during the 1930s were begging their parents for a Little Lulu doll, Lois Boien Durham ’43, Ralston, Neb., had her eyes on a Lindy Doll, a miniature Charles Lindbergh doll, complete with flight suit and goggles. The Omaha native cannot remember a time when she didn’t want to fly; in fact, that is all she ever wanted to do.
“I remember going to the airport to watch the planes as a young girl with my father. That was always a special treat,” Durham said.
At Doane, she pursued a political science and history major, despite her true passion. However, when the college started its Certified Pilot Training *CPT) program, Durham signed up to fulfill her dream.
“Actually, I had flown before I went to Doane, but I got my pilot’s license while I was in school,” she said.
That was back in the days when students could not leave the dorms until they were officially opened in the morning. So Durham would sneak out the window and head to the Crete Airport, then located on South Boswell, so she could prepare her plane for the day.
According to Durham, every CPT class had to have one woman per every 10 men, so getting into the program wasn’t too difficult. Through it, she got involved in the Civil Air Patrol, which helped prepare pilots for possible attacks and educated them on what to do in such situations.
She remembers sitting in the Frees Hall lounge with a friend listening to the symphony when they got word of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“I jumped up and drew the curtains closed to block out the light, just as we were instructed,” she said with a smile.
Just as her four years at Doane were coming to an end, Durham received a telegram from Washingron, D.C., inviting her to fly airplanes for the United States government. To the surprise of no one, she replied, “Yes,” and on the day she would have participated in Doane’s commencement activities, she was flying an AT-6 through the skies of Texas.
She had become a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) — the first women military pilots to serve in the United States Army Air Force during World War II. These women flew wartime missions within the U.S. to allow more male pilots for overseas duty.
When the seventh class of the WASP reported in May 1943, they were unsure where they were going.
“Women from all over the country were on that train and we really didn’t realize it at first, but when we changed trains in Dallas there were no men on the train cars going to Sweetwater,” she said. “From Dallas, we went to Sweetwater, Texas, where we remained until our six-month training was complete.”
The base, Avenger Field, was a leftover training facility, located 40 miles west of Abilene where the Army’s 90th Division was trained.
“We went through the same training as any male cadet,” she said. “In November 1943, after six months, we graduated 59 of the original 103 women who entered in our class.”
From Sweetwater, Durham was sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she would give Air Force radio students their first flight.
“I would just tell them upfront, ’you clean up any mess you make,’” she laughed.
While most men were receptive to women pilots, a few just didn’t like it. A commander in Sioux Falls refused to allow the women to live or eat on base at first. According to Durham, after he loosened up a bit, he let the WASPs eat on base, but they had to change from their flight gear into skirts and nylons before each meal and then back to their flight gear afterward.
From Sioux Falls, Durham transferred to the 3rd Ferrying Division at Romulus, Michigan, where the women were accepted as pilots and allowed to live in the barracks. While flying, they were allowed $4 a day to cover off-base expenses.
“We always had to pay room and board, as most of the time we couldn’t stay on base,” she noted.
For the next several months, Durham transported officers and planes from one coast to the other. Many times, she was taking new planes from the factory to bases that needed them.
After 19 months, it all came to a halt December 10, 1944.
“I received a telegram stating that, by December 20, I would be on my way home,” she said. “My last mission was to fly a B-17 from Memphis, Tennessee, to Colorado Springs. From there, I had to find my own way home.”
I went home and spent the holidays with my family in Omaha, but then told my mother I was going back to Romulus, and I did. I worked in civil service from that point on, for 37 years,” Durham said.
One day in 1945, Durham was asked to co-pilot a B-24 test flight because of her experience with that particular aircraft. When she arrived for the mission, she realized the pilot flying that plane was no other than Charles Lindbergh.
“He was wonderful. He made that plan do whatever he wanted and I just sat back in awe,” she said.
In 1951, she married Robert Durham and they had seven children, six sons and a daughter. She has since become the grandmother to 13 and the great-grandmother to three. Bob, also a pilot, died in 1982.
It was dedication and perseverance that took Durham from one ocean to the other. In 1999, her work was still paying off as it took her to Europe aboard the Concorde.
“I was invited to Europe, by the Concorde people, to relay my experiences as a WASP to a flight organization. In flight, the pilot of the Concorde invited me to join him in the cockpit; it was wonderful,” she said with a smile.
“Through my life I supervised and worked with many people. So many times, people were consumed with how much they were being paid, when they would be paid and when they could have time off. I never understood that. I did not do my job for the money, I did it because I loved to fly. I have always believed if you don’t love what you are doing, it’s not worth doing,” she said.
