Without Glory
By Esther Yu SumnerStanding on her toes while the serviceman measured her, Viney Ruth Rogers still barely squeaked past the minimum height restriction to work at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio. That year, 1942, the petite 19 year-old helped make history by becoming a San Antonio female civilian worker during the war and earning the right to be called a “Kelly Katie.”
Kelly Katies were typically 17 to 40 years old and had jobs at Kelly Field that included repairing airplanes and lifting 50-pound toolkits. Viney worked with instruments. According to her daughter Susan, Viney once had the heartbreaking task of crawling into a crashed fighter plane to retrieve valuable instruments from the cockpit. She was chosen because she could fit into the small space and had experience with instruments. The pilot had died in the crash, and Viney “had to crawl through all the blood and wreckage of the fighter interior to reach the instruments,” says Susan. “She felt so sorry for the lost pilot and his family that must be notified.”
Kelly Katies began in October 1942 after 10 women were hired experimentally to work in the aircraft instrument section. According to the 37th Training Wing Office of History and Research, Kelly Katies soon became 40 percent of the civilian workforce. Prior to that time, women made up only 7 percent of base workers.
Does Mom Have a Military Record?
Unfortunately, no official roster of Kelly Katies exists. But you can learn more about women in your own family who served a military role at the following sites or by checking with the base where your family member worked to find its equivalent to the Kelly Katies.
Women in Military Service for America Memorial at
Arlington National Cemetery
Women in the U.S. Navy and WAVES
WASP — Women Air Force Service Pilots
WAC — Women’s Army Corps
“Disguised Patriots: Women Who Served Incognito”
By Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, Ancestry Magazine, March/
April 2000
“Women Soldiers of the Civil War”
By DeAnne Blanton, Prologue Magazine, Spring 1993
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