Beverly Hills

Former WASP, 89, receives Congressional Gold Medal

By Robin Ruehlen
C & G Staff Writer

BEVERLY HILLS — When Sylvia Granader was 10, she used to sit at her aunt’s coffee shop across from City Airport and watch the planes for hours.

During her senior year at Wayne State University came the birth of the Women Air Force Service Pilots program, the first in history in which women were trained to fly American military aircraft in stateside missions.

“When I heard about it, I said I absolutely wanted to join,” Granader said.  She taught school in order to buy flying hours, and earned her pilot’s license by age 21.

Out of the 25,000 women who applied to be a WASP, only 1,879 were accepted — and of those, only 1,074 successfully completed the eight-month training program in Sweetwater, Texas. She was among 85 graduates of the fifth WASP class on Sept. 11, 1943.

“My mother was completely against it, but my father helped me,” she said.

“I used to write her a letter every night from Sweetwater, and finally, she came around to the idea. Being a WASP was wonderful, but when I think back, you really had to be 22 to do it.”

Granader was stationed in Wilmington, Del., and flew military aircraft from the factories to the airfields in order to free male pilots for combat service. The WASP unit was officially formed in August of 1943 as a result of the merger of two women’s pilot units, and lasted for 16 months.

On July 1, President Barack Obama signed legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the pilots of WASP, including Sylvia Granader. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress.

Granader said one particular memory stands out in her mind — a day when she and her partner had been scheduled to fly, but the names on the chalkboard were changed to a different pair of female pilots the next morning.

“That plane never came back, and they still don’t know why it went down,” she said.

“I guess the dear Lord had something else in mind for me.”

At the age of 23, Granader married her husband, Harry, and subsequently retired from WASP service. They moved to Beverly Hills in 1951, and in addition to raising their five sons, Granader attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art and received her master’s degree in weaving.

In 1991, the couple founded Camp Mak-A-Dream, a camp for children with terminal cancer, on 87 acres of their own ranch land in Gold Creek, Mont. Now, at age 89, Granader still spends her summers there in the art studio, teaching weaving to campers.

“Aside from my marriage, being a WASP was the most wonderful experience of my life,” she said.

“Just being with the instructors, the women … we had so much in common, and we talked flying all the time. We were a great group and had wonderful friendships.”

Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, who co-sponsored the bill, said the men and women who supported America’s war effort at home contributed to the Allied victory, just as his own father, a World War II veteran who served in Europe, did.

“The Women Airforce Service Pilots served our nation honorably, and I am happy they are being awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal,” he said.

“I am proud that one of our own in Oakland County is among those being honored, and I thank Ms. Granader for her service to our country.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Robin Ruehlen at rruehlen@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1105.