By Jim Heffernan
I was given an advance copy of this book and asked to review it. I was flattered, but really wasn’t expecting much. Turns out, it’s a wonderful book.
The book is built around the short, but very eventful live of Hazel Ying Lee. Hazel was born in Portland, Oregon’s Chinatown to Chinese born parents November 11, 1911 and died doing what she loved, flying November 25, 1944. She packed an incredible amount of living into her 33 years.
Hazel was the first Chinese-American woman in America to earn a pilot’s license. She received her license just before her 21st birthday. She paid for it with money she earned as an elevator operator at a Portland department store.
What impressed me most about the book was how the author was able to effortlessly weave so much information around Hazel’s life. She tells how oppressive it was to be Chinese and female in Portland. She tells of the horrific conditions in the Japan-China conflicts in the 1930’s. She tells what a magnificent service WASPS (Woman’s Air Force Service Pilots) performed and how shabbily they were treated. She tells of Jackie Cochran and her achievements. She gives us a sense of the airplanes they flew.
Susan tells it all in a style I found mesmerizing.
Here’s a couple of excerpts to show off her style.
Page 32
“The eastern sky began to lighten as Greenwood started the propeller and the engine came to life. Hazel sat in the front with Greenwood behind where he would talk her through taxiing and take off. Without a radio, instructors communicated through a rubber tube called a gosport, a six-foot-long tube attached to the student’s helmet, with a mouthpiece near the instructor’s mouth. Hazel could hear Greenwood but not answer or ask questions.
Following Greenwood’s instructions, Hazel taxied and lifted into flight. Geese rose from the river and flew beside the plane as they left the ground. Hazel smiled. Taking off was the most exciting thing she’d ever done. The stick controlled the airspeed, and the throttle controlled the altitude—there was nothing to it.
Next, she learned how to use Mount Hood as a reference point on the horizon to determine attitude, or relative position to the earth of the plane. Below her, daylight turned the Willamette River from black to sparkling gray-green. For half an hour she practiced flying straight and level, and then tried climbs and accelerations and decel- erations, with Greenwood’s steady voice in her ear. It was the first time she’d experienced the sensation of going up and down while flying, like she’d imagined when operating the elevator, and she couldn’t get enough. The lesson ended too soon, with Greenwood taking the controls for the landing.”
Page 242
“Hazel’s courage continues to inspire today. In becoming the first Chinese American woman to fly for the military and the first female Asian American to receive a pilot license, she proved that anything is possible. Gender and racial barriers never stood in her way. She challenged labels and rose above them while embracing what others might call limitations and making them a part of who she became.
There is still a long way to go to close the opportunity gap for women and minorities. Hazel represents the best in all of us, and like her, we can break down barriers, overcome adversity, and risk it all in the pursuit of equality and justice for all people regardless of gender, race, or any other characteristics used to discriminate.
Hazel would tell us to spread our wings and fly, the conditions are CAVU.” *
*Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited
Available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita
247 Pages, Publishes TODAY – April 23, 2024
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com