Sole Native American WASP

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Ola Mildred Rexroat was an Oglala Lakota born in Kansas in 1917 but descended from members of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She joined the U.S. Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) directly out of high school.

WASPs flew noncombat missions so male pilots could train and deploy. The WASPs’ story was shrouded for years because of stigma and secret records; they were neither officially recognized nor viewed as veterans until 1977. Their ranks totaled 1,074 women who collectively logged 60 million miles of flying and flew all types of military planes, ferrying them from the factory to a base.

Known as “Millie,” Rexroat was the sole Native American woman in the WASPs. Wanting to help with the war effort, she’d decided that a job as a riveter was dangerous, so she chose flying instead.

Rexroat had a fairly dangerous assignment: She towed targets for aerial gunnery students at Eagle Pass Army Air Base in Texas. According to her, “They checked the target after we came down, and of course, it was to our credit if it had lots of holes in it; that meant we had been maintaining our altitude and heading.”

Asked in an interview if she ever worried about the dangers of flying or getting shot, Rexroat shrugged. “I never gave it a thought. You couldn't worry about things like that…. You can't live forever,” she said….  I’m glad I did it, glad I had the chance to do it. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing…. I just did what I was expected to do and tried to do it the best way I could…. If I did accomplish anything or add anything to the war effort, I am happy now, and I was happy at the time.”

One day at Eagle Pass, a superior tossed her the keys to a jeep to retrieve a training target in a field after she landed. “This was a big problem for me, because I didn't know how to drive,” Rexroat said. “I had never learned how to drive a car. I don't think anybody trusted me with a car, but I could fly a plane.”

Dubbed “Rexy,” or “Sexy Rexy,” by her WASP pals, Rexroat joined the Air Force and served for almost ten years as an air traffic controller after the war.

Regarding the WASP, Sharron Davis, the executive director of the National WASP World War II Museum in Sweetwater, Texas, said the following: “They are looked up to by the modern-day female pilot as pioneers.”

In 2007, Rexroat was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame. Rexroat died in June 2017 at the age of 99 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.