Gee, Maggie, 1923-2013

Maggie Gee (August 5, 1923[1] – February 1, 2013[2]) was an American aviator who served in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II. She was one of two Chinese-American women to serve in the organization, the other being Hazel Ying Lee.[3][4] As a WASP pilot, she helped male pilots train for combat, as female pilots were not allowed to serve in combat at that time. She also ferried military aircraft.[5]

Life
Gee, one of six children, was born in Berkeley, California, August 5, 1923. She was a third-generation Chinese American; her maternal grandparents had moved to California from a village in Guangdong. Her grandfather was a pioneer in the abalone industry on the Monterey Peninsula.[6]

In 1941, Gee enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley to study physics, but dropped out after a few months to work in the drafting department at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, following the United States' entering World War II. Her mother Jung An Yoke also worked there, as a welder. Gee and two co-workers bought a car for US$25 and drove to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, where she trained for six months to become a WASP.[6]

She later worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Gee also served for many decades as an elected member of the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, supporting voter registration and fundraising. She also served for many years as a long-time Board member and Treasurer of the Berkeley Democratic Club in Berkeley, California. She has served on the California Democratic Party Executive Board and Asian Pacific Islander Democratic Caucus.

They never met, but their early lives ran a strikingly similar course. They were both Chinese-American women who thwarted layers of prejudice and preconception to become World War II pilots. One died young, while transporting a fighter plane. The other lived to 89 and went on to become a scientist.

Their names were Hazel Ying Lee and Maggie Gee, and they were WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots.

In 1942, as the Air Force faced a dearth of male pilots to sustain the war effort at home, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran persuaded the chief of the U.S. Army Air Force to recruit female pilots. More than 25,000 women applied. Only 1,830 were accepted into flight training. Of those, 1,074 completed the training.

Gee, a third-generation Chinese American, was born Gee Mei Gue on Aug. 5, 1923, in Berkeley, Calif., one of six children. Her mother was Jung An Yoke, whose parents moved to California from a village in Guangzhou, China, in the 1870s. Her grandfather, Jung Sun Choy, settled on the Monterey Peninsula south of San Francisco and became a pioneer in the abalone business.

The family moved to San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1906, then to Berkeley. In 1941, when she was 18, Gee enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, to study physics, but she dropped out a few months later when the United States entered World War II to work at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, Calif., near San Francisco. Her mother was a welder there, and Gee worked in the drafting department.

Aviation soon beckoned. Gee and two co-workers pooled their funds, bought a car for $25 and drove to Texas for six months of training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, 40 miles west of Abilene.

“I learned to parachute and make emergency landings,” Gee said. “We did the same intense work the male pilots had to do.”

Gee was occasionally mistaken for the Japanese enemy. She knew she stood out. “I felt like an exhibit at the country fair, a two-headed cow, the amazing Chinese-American WASP,” she said.

Gee was an exception. She returned to Berkeley, earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, then worked on weapons systems at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“She was that generation of Chinese-American women who broke out of the confines of isolation in the community,” said Harvey Dong, a lecturer in Asian-American and Asian diaspora studies at Berkeley.

Gee died on Feb. 1, 2013. She was 89. Warren Heckrotte, her partner of nearly 50 years, died in 2019.