Susan Parker Clarke
August 5, 1918 – July 4, 1944
Class 44-W-2
Entered Army Air Force flight training: Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, September, 1943
Graduated: March 11, 1944
Assignment: Ferry pilot
Planes flown: PT-19, BT-13, AT-6, B-25, BT-15
Assigned Bases: New Castle Army Air Base (Wilmington, Del.) and Fairfax Army Air Field (Kansas City, Kan.)

Susan was the daughter of George Hyde Clarke and Emily Borie Ryerson Clarke Cooke. She graduated high school in Cooperstown, New York, and attended Secretarial School in New York City.

Susan entered WASP flight training at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas in September 1943 and graduated on 11 March 1944. She was then stationed with the 33rd Ferrying Group at Fairfax Field, Kansas City, Missouri.

She was killed while piloting BT-13B #42-89841 Valiant aircraft of the 33 Ferry Group, WASP Squadron, based at Fairfax Field, Kansas City, Kansas. The Valiant took off from Columbia Army Air Base, South Carolina 4 July 1944 at 1130 hours. At three miles northwest and beyond the runway, at approximately the 1500-foot elevation, the aircraft experienced a collision in full flight with an object other than an aircraft. It was flying normally until it made a sudden peel to the left in a nose-down attitude and continued until it hit the ground, hitting the left wing first, and cartwheeled for several hundred feet, breaking apart and burning. It was noted by witnesses that there appeared to be a B-25 aircraft at approximately the same level prior to the aircraft breaking to the left. From the sound of the engine, it is believed that the Pilot, Clarke, changed the propeller control to a full low pitch and advanced the throttle to the full position.

Several theories were investigated by the accident investigation board, but no responsibility for the accident could be determined.

It is noted that Lt Harry C Thomas was on the flight as a Passenger to Camp Davis NC, and was on the plane during the previous leg of the journey from the Atlanta Army Air Base, and had approached Miss Clarke there to ask for a ride as a passenger. Prior to taking off from Atlanta, the plane had not undergone a preflight inspection.

The crew members were:

Susan Parker Clarke, ASN O83648-41, from Cooperstown NY, WASP Pilot
2nd Lt Harry C Thomas, ASN O-832941, from Pulaski VA, AUS Eastern Flying Training Command, Pilot and Passenger

Her brother, Lt George Hyde Clarke, Jr, was also killed in a WWII plane crash B-24E #42-7119 approximately one year before her death.

Sources:
Findagrave.com
Texas Women’s University
Wings Across America
Women Airforce Service Pilots 

Share:

More Posts

James Ewing

James Ewing Flt. Officer Class: 44-F-TE Graduation date: 6/27/1944 Unit: 477th Bombardier Group Service # T64271 Arkansas produced two flight officers (F/Os), or navigators, during the height of the Tuskegee era—James Ewing and Denny C.

Read More »

Robert Williams

Robert W. Williams, Jr. September 21, 1922 – September 8, 1997 Class: 44-E-SE 2nd Lt. Graduation date: 5/23/1944 Rank at time of graduation: Unit: 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group Service # 0830797

Read More »

James Randall

James E.P. Randall 1920 – December 9, 2019 The son of a librarian and a railroad worker, Randall grew up during the Great Depression in the segregated schools of Roanoke, VA. When World War II

Read More »

Everett Richardson

Lt. Everett Emerson Richardson April 27th, 1917 – DOD Unit: 477th Bombardment Group Service # 0-713053 From: Philadelphia, PA Lt. Everett Emerson Richardson was a Navigator / Bombardier with the 477th Bombardment Group. He entered

Read More »

Send Us A Message