Faith Buchner Richards
May 25, 1921- September 20, 2002
Class: 43-W-4
Training Location: Avenger Field (Sweetwater, Tex.) and Houston Municipal Airport (Tex.)
Assigned Bases: New Castle Army Air Base (Wilmington, Del.) and Greenwood Army Air Base (Greenwood, Miss)
Planes flown: BT-15,PT-17, AT-6,B-24,B-26, C-47
Historical Note: Faith Buchner Richards (WG #74) earned her helicopter rating July 13, 1964. She was a member of the WASP, class 43-W-4, and received flight instruction from fellow WASP Dottie Young (WG #16). She was also a member of the Ninety-Nines and the Women Military Aviators.
In 1943, Faith joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in Sweetwater, TX. Although her assignment was ferrying aircraft from Wilmington, DE, she was soon test hopping aircraft and shuttling personnel. In December of that year, she was transferred to Greenwood, MS, where she spent the next 22 months. One of only two women on the base, she soon became “Bucky”. During her WASP career, she flew 16 different aircraft, including the BT-13, AT-6, B-26 and B-24. In the early 1970s, Faith became the 74th woman in the free world to receive a helicopter rating. But her time in the sky was not over.
In 1995, at the age of 74, Bucky did it again. Needing help to get in, and out of the aircraft, she was checked out in a glider. The love of flying kept her near aircraft throughout her career. After deactivation, Faith worked with United Airlines in Chicago and Braniff Airways in Dallas. The owner of a travel agency in Albuquerque, she hit the skies again, this time in a balloon. She finally retired from American Airlines in 1986. Faith was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Board for Women Veterans for the State of New Jersey.
A past President of the WASP, she served on the Board as Education Chairman. A former board member of the Women Military Aviators (WMA), she was a member of the local 99 chapter and is Number 74 in the Whirlygirls. In 1999, she was inducted into the Aviation International Forest of Friendship. She can be found in many exhibits throughout the United States, including the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and Women’s Memorial in Washington, DC. In 1998 and 2000, Faith was featured in museum exhibits in Frankfurt, Germany and the exhibit in 2000 was dedicated to her. In 2002, a film/production company in Germany dedicated, and named, their blimp ‘Bucky’. She will always fly.
Sources:
Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas, WASP Collection
Findagrave.com
Wings Across America
