Martha Anne Wilkins Mitchell
January 2, 1921 – January 15, 2006
Class: 44- W-1
Training Location: Avenger Field (Sweetwater, Tex.)
Assigned Bases:
Asheville Weather Wing HQ, (AACS) (N.C.)
Kelly Army Air Field (San Antonio, Tex.)
Planes flown: PT-19, BT-13, AT-6, A-24, B-17, B-25, C-45, C-47, UC-78

Phoenix WWII Aviation Veteran Martha Wilkins Mitchell

Martha Anne Wilkins was the eldest of three children in the Wilkins family, who relocated to Arizona from Tennessee in 1939. Martha had graduated from high school and completed some college before the move and had a strong interest in aviation. She was inspired by the exploits of Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart. After the family arrived in Arizona, she worked for the Airsearch Manufacturing Company as an audit clerk.

Then, World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. National recruiting for military and civilian personnel started immediately. Martha wanted to serve her country so she placed herself in private pilot training. A little over a year later she not only had her private pilot license but also accumulated enough solo flying hours to qualify for the new Women Airforce Service Pilots program (WASP).

The WASP started out as a civilian program under the U.S. Army Air Force under General Hap Arnold and was managed by famous aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran (the WASP program was later recognized as military service by presidential proclamation in 1977).

In August 1943, Martha reported to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas as part of the first group of “Super WASPs” who would receive intensified training with extra flight hours, advanced navigation and thousand mile cross country flights. Martha was one of the few WASPs qualified to fly the heavy bomber B-17 Flying Fortress as first pilot and many other types of multi-engine aircraft.

Upon graduation Martha was assigned to both the Army Air Forces Air Weather Services at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas and the Air Weather Wing headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina. All told, she would fly nine different military aircraft types to locations all over the continental U.S. to transport military weather personnel and specialized equipment to support operations and upcoming missions directed at both theaters of war. By late 1944 following the major victories in both the European and Pacific theaters of war, the pressure came off the biggest U.S. military mobilization in history and little by little various functions were phased down to focus war-ending priorities. The WASP were disestablished in this phase and Martha was one of thousands released from service to go home.

Martha arrived back in Arizona raring to continue in aviation. She later wrote, “After deactivation I returned home to Phoenix, Arizona. I freelanced, did flight instruction, charter and some corporate flying. I also bought and sold a few airplanes and flew CAP searches.” In 1946, she purchased a one-third interest in Sky Harbor Air Service, Inc., where she met Mike Mitchell, who also owned a third of the company. Two years later in 1948, she acquired the remaining third interest, giving the pair full ownership of the business.

Operating from the general aviation line at Sky Harbor Airport, they expanded the company’s services to include flight training, charter operations, aircraft and engine maintenance, and the sale of pilot supplies – and started one of the first licensed air ambulance services in the United States. Martha and Mike married in 1952 and renamed the company Mitchell Air Service. Over the next thirty-three years, Mitchell Air Service provided vital aviation services throughout Arizona and beyond, earning a nationwide reputation while helping to save countless lives.

In 1976, the Mitchell’s offered their Beechcraft D-18 (N-522B), one of the most successful aircraft types ever designed and built, to the then new, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum where it is on display today.

Martha and Mike retired in 1985 and sold the company they took from a pioneering aviation business into the modern era. Mike Mitchell passed away in 1993 and Martha Wilkins Mitchell passed away in 2006.

Courtesy of CAF Airbase Arizona Flying Museum at Falcon Field
 
Credits:
Sydney Ealy, ASU intern
Bobbie Carleton, Airbase Arizona
National Archives
Pima Air and Space Museum (they placed the Wilkins-Mitchells on their walk of honor)
Smithsonian
Texas Womens University
WWII history of AAF Weather Service.
Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas, WASP Collection