Flew in Enola Gay during WWII
JOYCE H. KRESS | 1919-2009
March 7, 2009
BY
LARRY FINLEY Staff Reporter
lfinley@suntimes.com
Imagine Joyce H. Kress' surprise when she read about the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan and realized that she had once ridden on the plane that made the historic flight.
She was with the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps at what is now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in 1945 when she rode on the B-29 -- the Enola Gay -- just to "get a little flying time," said her daughter Barbara Bona.
Ms. Kress always said that during World War II she was in the "right place at the right time" in Ohio, Bona said. It was there she met two aviation pioneers Orville Wright and Igor Sikorsky and landed on a recruitment poster.
Ms. Kress, 89, died Sunday in Alden Town Manor hospice in Cicero.
A resident of Berwyn, she worked for 20 years as a teacher's assistant in District 89. She was secretary of the Oak Leaves newspaper in Oak Park after the war. She was one of the first women in the Air Force when it became a separate branch of the services.
"She enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps when it was established in 1943," her daughter said. "She activated the women's squadron at Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. She was in the service for two years active duty and a total of 16 years including the reserves."
The Enola Gay was at the base prior to being flown overseas. Ms. Kress was told it was to fix fuel line problems, her daughter said. It also was being refitted to handle the first atomic bomb, according to base records.
"She asked if she could get in some flying time," Bona said. "Someone said, 'Sure, grab a chute and come on.' She realized the significance of the plane after we had bombed Japan."
Her unit did administrative work at Patterson. The base was later merged with the adjoining Wright Field, named after the pioneers of flight -- Wilbur and Orville Wright. Wilbur Wright died in 1912 but his younger brother Orville was still working at the base and living nearby.
Ms. Kress and the other WACs faced a bleak Christmas in 1943 when they got a special invitation, Bona said.
"They didn't have any place to go, so Orville Wright took pity on them and invited them to his house for dinner." she said. "That was pretty neat for my mother to be sitting with someone who was part of history.''
She also met and flew with another historic figure, Igor Sikorsky, the aviation pioneer who was demonstrating his helicopter to the aviation brass at the base. Her flight only went about seven feet off the ground but she later reported that it "was like being in a rocking chair."
Ms. Kress was born in Canada on March 16, 1919 and moved as a child with her family to Oak Park. After high school, she attended business school before doing office work.
Other survivors include a son, Guy S. Bona III, and her sister, Margery Silunas.
Military services and interment will be private at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.
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Flew in Enola Gay during WWII
