This 99-year-old World War II fighter pilot received an awesome birthday gift

(Image credit: Twitter.com/WPTV)

published 13 July 2015

It was a fitting tribute for a World War II fighter pilot's birthday: On Saturday, vintage aircraft flew over Boeing Field in Seattle in honor of Dorothy Olsen as she turned 99.

Olsen was one of about 1,000 women pilots to serve in World War II, and from 1943 to 1945 flew 22 different types of fighter planes from factories to U.S. Air Force bases. After dropping the planes off, male pilots would then fly them overseas. "You were reminded quite often about being a female and doing a man's job," she told KOMO News. "I flew every chance I got. I never turned down a flight, 'cause I loved it."

She caught the flying bug as a young girl, after riding in a plane at an Oregon state fair. "I had to pay for it," she said. "I thought, 'there's a better way. I'm going to learn to fly myself.'" She had her private license when World War II started, and decided to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. Men were often shocked when she came out of the cockpit, she said, and "they gathered around the plane and around me, and boy I felt like Queen Elizabeth. I just loved it." Olsen also enjoyed flying the planes fast and low to the ground, she told KING 5. "Who pays attention to the rules when you're a fighter pilot?"

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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