Doris Brinker Tanner
December 6, 1919 – February 9,2019
Class: 44-W-4
Training Location: Avenger Field (Sweetwater, Tex.)
Assigned Bases: Douglas Army Air Base (Ariz.)
Planes flown: PT-17, BT-13, BT-14, AT-6, AT-9, AT-17, B-25, UC-7

“…if they don’t know history, if they don’t place any importance on history, we’re in trouble, because history is so important…no just the history of women, the history of our country!”Doris Brinker Tanner, 44-W-4

Doris Brinker Tanner was born Dec. 6, 1919, in Dallas, Texas, daughter of the late Rayfield Brinker and Emelene and Charlie Russell. She was a graduate of Haywood County High School in Brownsville, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1941.

While enrolled at UTK, she received her private pilot license under the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Mrs. Tanner served her country as a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot during World War II.

When the United States entered World War II, women like Tanner had their first chance to fly for the Army.

They flew generals, nurses and others across the United States, allowing male pilots to go overseas for combat.

“We had to be able to do everything a man could do in a plane, and we did,” Tanner said.

Tanner had only been married to her husband William W. Tanner (Bill) for about eight months when he was deployed.

The two hardly knew each other, she said, when she headed to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, for training with WASP.

Training was grueling, with irregular meals, 12 girls sharing a bathroom, early starts and hours of flight practice.

Tanner loved it.

“I fly because that’s who I am,” Tanner said. “I had two years and I just adored it.”

Doris Brinker Tanner receiving her pilot wings

At Sweetwater, Tanner worked alongside the “dynamic, gutsy gals of World War II,” according to her book.

Tanner said she remembered 12 women dying in training accidents.

In her book, she writes about the deaths of Mary Howson and Elizabeth Erickson. She knew Howson as a “deliberate, careful person.” Howson was finishing a cross country flight as Erickson took off on her first solo flight. The planes collided and both women were killed.

Tanner had her own close call when a seat belt failed, ejecting her from the plane.

Her instructor yelled at her, “Pull your ring, pull your ring.”

Tanner pulled the ring to her parachute and floated safely to the ground, she said.

In training, the women learned everything from mathematics to how to care for the engine.

Tanner had her own close call when a seat belt failed, ejecting her from the plane.

Her instructor yelled at her, “Pull your ring, pull your ring.”

Tanner pulled the ring to her parachute and floated safely to the ground, she said.

In training, the women learned everything from mathematics to how to care for the engine.

They formed “wonderful friendships” — and surprised the men who thought women were too delicate to do a man’s job, Tanner said.

The WASP flew 60 million noncombat miles before the end of the war.

“It was a different time, different age, different atmosphere,” Tanner said. “The whole United States was united in the war effort, because we had been attacked by the Japanese. It wasn’t just something you stepped into and stepped out of. We fought hard for the war to be over.”

When the war ended, Tanner reunited with her husband, who was injured near the end of the war.

The couple moved back to Tennessee, settling in Obion County.

There, Tanner tried to adjust to normal life, spiraling into depression as she found herself faced with nothing to do except play bridge and tennis.

“People don’t usually die of boredom, but I think I nearly died,” Tanner said. “It’s pretty sad to just wake up every morning with nothing to do.”

Eventually, Tanner became adjusted to life on the ground.

She earned a Master’s Degree in education at Murray State University. She also completed advanced graduate work at Vanderbilt University, receiving an honorary doctorate. Mrs. Tanner taught at Haywood County Elementary School, Obion County Central High School and was an associate professor emeritus of history at the University of Tennessee at Martin. She served on the Tennessee Board of Education in 1972.

Elected as president of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) organization in 1986, she also served on its Committee for Militarization, presenting documentation to secure veteran status to both Senate and House Committees on Military Affairs in 1977. In 2010, she attended an award ceremony in Washington, D.C. to receive a Congressional Gold Medal for her service during World War II, along with more than 200 other WASP veterans.

A member of the Presbyterian Church in America, she served as a short-term missionary to Taiwan, where she was received and honored by General Chen Hsing-ling for her flying service training Nationalist Chinese cadets at Douglas Air Force Base, Ariz.

Mrs. Tanner authored several books including “Zoot Suits and Parachutes,” “An Infantryman Writes Home,” an award-winning biography, “Cornelia Fort” and a published article in American History Illustrated: “We Also Served.” She also wrote and published two children’s books: “Squirrelie” and “The Flying WASP.”

She was listed in Outstanding Educators, Who’s Who of American Women, and featured in Tennessee Women, Past and Present. Most recently, in 2016 she was the recipient of a Sterling Award: The Twenty Most Influential Women of West Tennessee.

VIDEO: 2016 Sterling Award Recipient Doris Brinker Tanner.mpg

Sources:
Jackson Sun
Tennessee State Museum
Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas, WASP Collection
Findagrave.com

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