Hazel Ying Lee loved to have fun. She liked playing pranks, and some described her as hilarious. She was also adventurous and athletic, enjoying swimming and playing handball. But maybe most of all, Hazel was courageous and loved flying planes. About Hazel's love for flying, her sister said she "enjoyed the danger and doing something that was new to Chinese girls."
Hazel was born to Chinese-American immigrant parents in Portland, Oregon, in 1912. At nineteen, Hazel watched a friend fly. That experience marked the beginning of her lifelong love. She saved money and, with the financial help of the Portland Chinese Benevolent Society, earned her pilot's license, making her the first Chinese-American woman to earn one.
Wanting to put her aviation skills to good use, Hazel accepted an invitation to become a Women Airforce Service Pilot for the U.S. during World War II. The program had been created to add more pilots for the U.S. in the war effort, though these female pilots were non-combat, focusing their efforts on testing and ferrying aircraft and training pilots. They were also not officially considered part of the military and thus received no military benefits. Hazel joined as the first Chinese-American pilot.
Hazel's attitude towards the work was described well by a fellow pilot — "I'll take and deliver anything." "Calm and fearless," she had a great attitude and brought her sense of humor to the job. After an incident in which her plane went down in a farm field and a person on the ground mistook her for an enemy Japanese combatant, Hazel shared the story with her fellow pilots to exuberant laughter and continued her work proudly supporting the U.S. war effort.
Sadly, however, on November 23rd, 1944, while flying in bad weather in North Dakota, she crashed with another plane upon landing. She suffered severe burns, and two days later, she passed away. Hazel was buried next to her brother, a U.S. soldier who was killed while fighting in France three days after Hazel's passing.
Of the 38 female pilots to die during WWII, Hazel was the last one.
Sources:
"Hazel Ying Lee, one of the first two Chinese Americans in the Women Air Force Service Pilots." (U.S. Air Force Photograph), Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hazel_Ying_Lee,_one_of_the_first_two_Chinese_Americans_in_the_Women_Air_Force_Service_Pilots.jpg
"Hazel Ying Lee." National Museum United States Army, https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/hazel-ying-lee/
"Hazel Ying Lee." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Ying_Lee
"Women Airforce Service Pilots." Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Airforce_Service_Pilots
"Women Airforce Service Pilot Hazel Ying Lee." The National WWII Museum, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/women-airforce-service-pilot-hazel-ying-lee
I love stories about early female pilots!
I too enjoy reading stories of earlier pilots, both male and female. My late long time boyfriend was a retired Air Force and commercial airline pilot. I loved listening to all his stories.