If there was ever one thing I would never regret, it was the fact that I was a mother.

But the rest really was up for grabs.

I was only 23 when I joined the army, but it mostly wasn't for me really. I had to find a way to pay for my daughter and give her a perfect life, or close to one that I could afford. But growing up in a small town with hardly any kind of opportunity for me was not really an easy task for a single mother. I never wanted to do something like this, but like many other things, I was thinking of others before myself. I had to since there was no real time for me to find out what I wanted once I decided to join the war effort as a pilot.

A female pilot, it was an eye raiser for sure in my town.

I had a typical upbringing in a small town along the east coast, a loving father and mother, and an older brother named Aaron. We were a typical Irish Catholic family, working class with our nose to the grind and our hands constantly moving. There wasn't really wrong with my family when I was growing up under the constantly changing trees of Massachusetts. We lived in a smaller town outside of Boston, Quincy to be exact, though from time to time we found find out way in Boston for vacation or anything else we would want to do when Quincy was far too quiet or boring. None the less, I loved living there.

My father, Brennan, worked with planes and was a mechanic, he was even a pilot in World War One and barely survived the war because of his knack of flying around and getting out of sticky situations. After he left the war, he found my mother Eloise and married her within months after meeting her, though the both of them kept their marriage together and showed to regret of getting married within months of knowing each other. I always looked at them as a good example of what love would look like: laughter around the dinner table, arguments ending in hugs and whispered apologies upon each other's lips, and constant kisses on cheeks and foreheads when they had the chance. They had Aaron a year after they were married, settled in the town I grew up in and I came three years later.

Even when I was young, my father would teach my brother and I all about the mechanics of cars and planes. Well, he taught my brother first and I tagged along for the ride since it looked interesting enough. I really thought my mother was having a heart attack when she saw me sticking my head in the front of my father's car to look at the engine when I was only 7 years old, though my father pulled me out and saw oil on my face and I was grinning from ear to ear. It was very safe to say I caught the mechanic bug when I was young and it never went away. We grew up in either the garage or in the woods when we would camp on the weekends together. That was another thing my father taught us: camping.

Aaron and I, once we both were teenagers, learned how to basically survive out in the wild. From the single skills of making a fire and using the stars to navigate. Our father grew up camping and he learned from his own grandfather, so it was a simple trade for us to learn. Once when I was still pretty young, he got to fly in a plane with me in his lap and my eyes going wide in admiration and in pure happiness. Once we took the sky, having me wear my own pair of goggles and seeing the world from above, it was all changing for me.

I wanted to fly.

My father had his own mechanic shop, having me sit on a stool and watch him work on engines and other cars for hours on end with interest. It made me really want to know how a car engine worked, how the mechanics were made and every part that was indicated to make the engine go. I was a strange child, very strange to want to tinker with model cars that my brother had instead of playing with dolls or combing my hair. My poor mother, she wanted a daughter and she got herself a grease monkey instead.

As I got older, I started wearing dresses and having some girlfriends here and there. I was average in school although on the weekends or late in the night, I would go into the garage and work with my father in the car and get more lessons from him. As long as I kept my nose in the books, he would teach me all he knew about cars and planes since that was what I wanted. Most of the time, I was far too shy to be around the regular girls who would flirt with the boys and get their attention. I preferred my own alone time really since I was too shy for anyone to deal with. Aaron was kind enough to hang around me as my big brother and a good friend. I wasn't that I had no friends, I had a certain few really. But I had no big group of friends to flock to all the time, I just stayed in the garage and helped out with my father when I could. Growing up as a teenager in a garage was never really the ideal thing for me to do, or for anyone really. But I didn't mind getting my hands dirty and some grease in my honey blond hair and along my freckles cheeks under my green eyes. My hands were calloused and rough, my arms were developing muscles for carrying tools and parts in crates, and there was nothing that was really going to change that.

Up until I met Adam.

He wandered into my life when he brought his car into the garage, having engine trouble and making me almost miss a step. He was beyond handsome, a smile that would make me melt into a puddle if I could and war eyes that had me grin at him as he was telling me what was going on with his car. He had cool brown hair, pushed to the side in such a manner that was popular and slick, along with cool blue eyes that were both bright and enticing to look at. Once we locked eyes, I knew for a fact that I was long gone from him. After fixing his car, in which he watched me in long adoration, we ended up talking for a good long awhile when I got to know him intensely.

He was from Boston and was traveling through town to meet some friends for the weekend. The only son of two loving parents and had a knack for being adventurous, he caught my attention from the moment he spoke up softly and asked for my name. We started our conversation with how I liked and worked with cars and his love for cars too. For a while my mother thought my love for cars was going to hinder me from meeting and man and marrying him, but now it was the other way around from one chance encounter with a stranger who took interest in me from the moment I shook his hand with my greasy one. We ended up talking for hours and right when he was about to leave, he asked for my telephone number. That was a first.

And ended up being the last, since we got married a year later right after we both graduated from high school.

We talked for two years. was engaged for one year and then married, though it was still considered very uneasy since we were young and married. He worked for his own father with their industry company in Boston, and they made enough for the both of us to live off of though I still worked for my dad. After we were married, I moved in with Adam to Boston and we had our own place in one of the apartments in the busier parts of the city. I loved Adam with all my heart, and he loved me as well. We both knew each other quite well to be a married couple: He knew how I took my coffee and what books I loved to read. I knew how he loved to listen to music and even how he loved to dance when he would take me dancing.

But he still loved me when I was working on engines and car parts, he even thought it was cute when I was knitting my eyebrows together and hunched over a carburetor that was propped on our coffee table. We were an odd couple, our apartment filled with car parts and mechanical books along with coffee mugs and records of dancing tunes. But it fitted us so nicely since we both were so connected with one another it seemed perfect.

And it got even better when I found out that I was pregnant.

Adam was thrilled to hear that he was going to be a father, swinging me in his arms and never once wanting to put me down when I told him the news. All of our friends and family were beyond happy to hear that we were going to be parents. Things were changing in my life, learning how to be a wife and how to be a mother when I was getting closer to my due date. It still baffled me that this was my life, being happily married and soon thing a child. I didn't think I would be doing something like this two years prior, and it all changed because of Adam and he looked at me. It was the look of pure love and devotion, something I can honestly say I would have never thought I would get from any guys because of how shy I was and how dirty I looked. I wasn't ugly, nor I was beautiful in my opinion. I didn't know if it was because I had issues with my own self-image, but Adam completely made me feel beyond worth it.

I had a beautiful daughter named Beth, and she was beyond perfect. I had never felt more love flowing me when they placed her in my arms than ever before. She had her father's eyes, but her hair was light and having some honey blond and red hair she sported thanks to her Irish roots. She was radiant, and we both loved her to pieces. Everything to me was falling into place for me, and I thought things could not be sweeter or more divine.

But it crashed around me when Adam died, right after my 21st birthday.

He was killed in a car crash, having me be woken up in the middle of the night while I was asleep and Beth was in the bassinet next to me. I knew Adam was working late with his father at their office, and when I opened the door, I was thinking it was Adam since he once again lost his house keys. But I was wrong, seeing the officers there and the solemn looks on their faces. Once they told me the news, the car he was in the slammed into a building from a T-Bone and he was killed instantly, I fell to my knees and sobbed into my hands.

My world was shattered because my light was gone.

How was I going to pick up the pieces of my life when my husband was gone and I was now a widow? Not only a widow, but a widow with an infant child who was only 4-month-old when she lost her father. I had no sense of happiness left in me, even after all of the phone calls from my family with condolences and apologies for my loss. It was still raw for me to get through the days and night without Adam next to me, without me hearing his voice and without him holding me close in our bed. Everything inside of me felt empty and hollow, but Beth was still the only silver lining I had. I had to carry on for her since I was not going to give up on my daughter. She was the one who was bringing me a smile on my face, when I heard her laugh for the first time and or when she started to move her body around on her own. She was slowing bringing me back to the land of the living.

Aaron, my wonderful older brother, had me move in with him since he was doing so well with his job as a professor at the local university in English. He was doing good on his own, having a small place to himself and I was afraid that I was cramping his style and making me look less appeal to girls that were flocking to him. But he knew that I didn't want to go back and live with my parents though I was still young enough to do so really. He was fine with me living with him, and he was a big help with me raising Beth.

When Beth just turned two years old, I had to think of a way to make sure the both of us were going to be finically secure since I doubted Aaron would want me to live with him for the rest of his life along with his niece. My mother and father were already scraping by as it was, and I had some good enough experience with mechanical works, but no one was going to hire me since I was a single mother. It was going to be far too much for me to handle, yet I tried to find a way for the sake of Beth who was sporting long red and blond hair and her father's eyes, the constant reminder that was both soothing and painful.

During this time though the army was trying to recruit men into enlisting, yet my brother was beyond sick when he went into the physical and he missed being sent off to war. It was a blessing for him, yet I was still in a slump with my own work life or lack thereof. However, one afternoon when I was playing with Beth in our living room, Aaron busted into the house with a paper in his hand and a grin on his face.

He said he found a way for me, and it was unexpected.

The army was looking for mechanics for both cars and planes really, anyone who knew how to operate either one or how to work on either one. Hell, there was talk about women being enlisted to help make planes and send them off to war for the men. I was doubting it since it sounded a bit tedious though tempting since I knew how to do it. But it was when Aaron mentioned the money that I would be making, good money, that it made me take the paper from his hand and reevaluate my options. They would pay me to work on a plane or on cars and get them working right, and I knew about planes and cars better than most people ever did.

I went for it.

The nearest place that they were hiring people for mechanic work was in Georgia at Camp Toccoa, where they were training new soldiers for the war. I would have to go down there for a month or so and they were going to see if I was suitable for the job, which I had to take reluctantly and with hesitance since this was the first time I would be separated from Beth. But she was in good hands with Aaron and my folks who volunteered to watch her a couple of days when Aaron was working. So I took the train to Camp Toccoa and I stayed there as a new mechanic for the jeeps and planes that would be used in the war.

It was both easy and hard at the same time. Easy, since I knew my way around a car and I knew how to drive ti pretty darn well, and hard because it was tougher equipment, war equipment. But I got by, even impressing some of the men there with how I knew how to get an engine and have it stop turning over from time to time. If it was getting money in my pocket, then it as fine enough for me since it was going straight to Beth.

One of those days caught be off guard, when I was seen by one of the head mechanics tinkering with one of the planes that they were going to use in the war. I was just poking my head around, peering into the control when he joked with an questioned look if I could fly. I told him I could with a bit of confidence though I was still shy. He thought I was bluffing, saying I couldn't get the plane to turn on. Well, I did shut him up good when I got the engine on, rolling the plane around a bit and even maneuvered my away around the runway without breaking a sweat. He was floored, which brought me to another predicament:

They wanted to enlist me as a pilot for the Air Force, and then work as a mechanic, only at first.

I was stunned to hear that since was the only female there working on the cars and planes as a training sequence. But he explained that I was one of the best that came though, already earning at least 50 dollars because of my services and I could earn more as a mechanic in the army, not to mention a driver for supply runs. Did He want me for both? Such a silly job for a woman to have, not to mention a single mother. I went home to see my daughter, seeing her giggle and cuddle me close as I walked into the door and Aaron hugged me after. I explained to him what happened and how I was recruited to be in the Air Force, in which Aaron told me to call our parents. My own mother, when I told her on the phone, immediately told me "No! That is far too dangerous, and you have a daughter to think about!"

That's right, my daughter.

All I could think about was just being there for her, wanting to give her a better future than the one I was thinking of, which was bleak and poor. I had no other job to fall back on and since I was a widow, it was going to make finding a job harder and more painful. I didn't want to rely on my parents who were wanting to give me money, but they were barely getting by as it was. No, I had to think of a way to get my daughter a good life and for me to try and find a way to get past the pain of heartbreak and loss. After talking about it with my parents and my brother, I had my choice.

I was enlisting in the Air Force as a member of Women's Airfare Service Pilots.

1942

Avenger Field

Sweetwater, Texas

"Adaline, hey Adaline!" I was sitting in one of the planes that we were testing riding out at Sweetwater Texas when I was called on by one of our head mechanics. I was trying to get the configuration right with the cockpit and the dial ready for usage later that day when we were going to ride it out. It was a nice plane: A-36 Apache. I was particularly proud of this plane since I worked the most on it, long hours from dawn to dust. Since I came to Texas and became part of the Women's Airfare Service Pilots program that was held there, I was training in how to fly planes for both combats and dropping off equipment for the troops. There was myself and about several hundred other women who were training for the same thing: to fight in the war or at least have some kind of aid in there that did not require sitting behind a desk and looking pretty.

No, we wanted to fly and we wanted to fly fast.

It's been now 5 months since I was back at home in Massachusettes, and saying goodbye to Beth was the hardest thing to do. But the pay for me for being a female pilot in the army was beyond amazing and it's what I needed. I had to hold her close for a good solid few minutes, hearing her plead into my hair for me not to leave her. It was like I was being stabbed for seeing her in my brother's arms as I drove off in the cab to the train station. By then, she had long red-blond hair that came to her mid back and her bright blue eyes that were piercing with tears and heartache. She was staying with my brother then, and I trusted him enough since we both we close as brother and sister and as friends.

"What is it?" I asked as I poked my head out from the cockpit over to where I was being summoned. Our head mechanic in the area, Jonesy, was coming over my way with his mechanic uniform on. After getting my wings with WASP, I also was learning how to work with the military jeeps and other vehicles that were going to be needed, also learning how to fix them since I had plenty of background in the area. I was halfway through my training there in Texas since they needed more mechanics in the field than anything because of the fear of jeeps breaking on them in the war.

"You're needed over at Headquarters." He replied to me, a middle-aged man who was edgier with a personality that like an annoyed father than anything. But he was kind to me compared to the other mechanics, being that I was the lucky few that hardly needed guidance or someone to hold their hand through the training sessions. I hopped out of the open window of the plane, jumping into the wing and then onto the floor. That day I was wearing my training uniform, BDU pants and boots along with my pilot jacket and my hair back in a messy ponytail.

I had some muscles behind me now from the flight training, they were having us so push ups and runs to keep up our adrenaline and bodies to the top physical levels. I still had muscles behind me from working in the mechanic shop with my dad as a teenager.

"Why do they wanna see me?" I asked him in curiosity since I would never really raise my voice to anyone to be fair. I wasn't really that bold compared to the others in the pilot line up. Hell, some of the others in the WASP program were great girls to work with, but I was the shyest one in the bunch, However, since I was the shyest, I was still one the best pilots in the Airfield, at least that's what the officers would tell me.

"No idea, but I would hope that they would bring you back here soon sine we still need you to work on our latest jeep that broke down last night." He replied to me, having me just smile at him as I grabbed the towel that was attached to my uniform now to clean my hands. I was his go to when it came to fixing vehicles quickly, he didn't trust the others that were under him. I just walked away from him now, trying to fix my hair in the process with my head reeling from the countless questions that were flooding my head. This was the second time I would be heading to headquarters, since the firs time was when I hopped off the train and came in to be sworn in and pushed in orientation, No one really goes to HQ unless they either get a promotion, transferring to another camp or they to in trouble.

I was really hoping that I wasn't getting the latter.

"O'Malley, Adaline," Our head of the airfield read from my file as I was standing in front of him at attention. He was in his forties though he had some kindness to him to those who were on his good side, he also was a mean tyrant to those who he hated. But to me, he as kind enough to have me think of him as some kind of adoptive Uncle.

"You one of our best pilots here in Avenger Field, not to mention a top-notch mechanic." He said to me in almost a statement as he looked up at me with his pilot jacket on and experience on his face and eyes. I could hear the airplanes going up and down in the air, taking off and landing outside the window of the office I was in, along with feeling the hot heat of the Texas summer day.

"Thank you, sir." I thanked him as he was pointing to my file now with one finger, having me see the gold band there and then watching him now.

"I was told by Jonesy himself that you're one of his best in his class, and I take that into consideration since he hardly ever says anything nice to about his students at all. It's been at least three years since I have heard something positive about a student come out of that man's mouth." He explained some more, and I couldn't help but grin at the notion of Jonesy being such a softy when it came to me and my work with him.

"I should take that as a compliment sir?" I asked him, seeing him smile and nod his head at me.

"Of course, pilot. But he's going to be rather disappointed with this new delivery of this letter that I have here in my hand." He said to me, pointing to the letter in front of him that was on the side of my file. I looked too, seeing that it was a letter that had the latter head from another head officer, maybe it was a colonel really. It was typed and looked rather pristine from where I was standing behind the desk. Why would Jonesy not like what was in the letter? Was this why I was sent here? A bit of a new change for me?

"What is it, sir?" I asked, seeing him grab it and holding it out for me to take.

"You read it, pilot." He replied to me, having me then move my hand from being behind me and gently grabbing the letter from him without any kind of force behind it. Once I had it there in my hand, I held it there with both hands and now I read it without saying a word or two. I was going through it, word for word and seeing that my name was being brought up a couple of times, along with my hard work to the army and my dedication and work ethic. It was still a bit confusion really, up until I knew why I was brought into the office.

"They want me to transfer to another training camp?" I asked, knitting my eyebrows together in wonder as I looked back up at him.

"Effective immediately, to Camp Toccoa. Permanently," he explained to me as I was looking at him in both shock and confusion at the same time. I was only here for 5 months, almost 6 next week really since I was keeping the calendar in check for my own sake, and yet I thought I was only going to stay here for awhile. Hell, the thought of being a Pilot was already dawning on me, but then again they told me that I was a pilot, but I won't be doing any main flying within the war anytime soon. It was all about the WASP program not being able to be part of the main piloting program in the Air Force, none of us in WASP have yet to receive military ranking and we wondered when that day was going to come.

"They need plenty of mechanics there, both males and females with the vast amount of experience working on military vehicles, and you were the top of the list here in Avenger Field." He informed me now I was looking through the letter again, "You were recommended for training new mechanics for working on military vehicles. You know your way around a vehicle: How it works and how to fix it within minutes other than hours. They are in desperate need for someone like you."

"Only for my mechanical works, sir?" I asked him since clearly so far in the conversation I was needed only for my skills with mechanics and handling cars and engines.

"As of right now, since I heard nothing on the frontline of using you for the piloting yet, though they are going to take that into consideration since the British are going to be needing more help across the pond. But right now, all they need from you is your mechanic skills." He replied, having me nod in agreement. It was still a touchy subject for women to fly planes yet I couldn't imagine why since I loved flying planes just as much as I loved my daughter. If this is what they wanted, then this was what they were going to get from me really.

"When do I leave?"

Camp Toccoa, Georgia

The Georgia humidity and heat was something I never really missed, but here it was again as I walked across the field in Camp Toccoa, soldiers left and right of me training in their Companies and getting through the basic training. This time I was going to stay longer than a week or so. I never had to go through that, but then again I had my own training with the planes and being a pilot. That had to be on the back burner now though I was worn into service, and I was now one of the Head Mechanics there in the Camp for those who needed it.

The sun was high above, already having me be attacked with bugs on my exposed neck as I walked with my pilot jacket in my hand and my wings there on my jacket to be seen. As I walked by some of the new soldiers, they were stumbling a bit from seeing me walk with my bag in one hand and the other holding my pilot jacket in a clutched manner. I was wearing my pants, boots underneath, jacket in hand and a white dress shirt that was short sleeved. I packed my mechanic pilot coveralls and some spare clothes, along with some pictures of Beth that I snuck in and never left behind at all.

It was odd to be out of my element, surrounded by men who were looking at me like I was some kind of foreign alien. Even some of the officers that were there were giving me odd looks: seeing a WASP member walking through an army training base and it was making me feel kind of odd about it honestly. Once again, I was out of my element and I was never really great at being around a lot of people at one time. I bit my lip from the shyness that was coming through me, also having me feel the redness coming through me now on my cheeks and near my neck because of all of the sea of faces looking right at me.

God, I hated being shy. Which was why I didn't see myself running into another soldier.

"Oh shit! Sorry about that, I didn't—" The soldier explained to me in a rush as I was taken back a bit by the force. We locked eyes, looking right at each other as we are standing there on the training field. He was about my height though I was still a bit small compared to the other girls already, and he looked like he was in utter shock from what he was seeing at me. He sported brown hair, almost a bit floppy as it was pushed to the side, and a darker shade of brown. All in all, there was a sense of handsomeness there on his face, along with a look of innocence as he gulped and eyed me up and down.

"Holy Sweet Jesus." He gasped out, having me instantly look down from sheer embarrassment from how he sounded. The way he sounded, and how he said it as he took a small breath and smiled widely at me now, it made me think that he was surprised and shocked by what he was seeing, which was me. Being painfully shy, I never had the real self-confidence of any of the other WASP women, but that was my own doing. However, how he was looking at me, made me rethink that.

"I'm sorry for running into you." I said in almost a low tone, not even a whisper but not with confidence. He made me take a step back with how he was looking at me, but it was not in a threatening way. No, it was like it was with interest like he liked what he was seeing. He smiled, a row of perfectly white teeth was seen and his smile instantly made me feel butterflies in my stomach. I haven't felt that since Adam, and plenty of men smiled at me before. This time it felt different, more real and more of a thrill.

"It's fine, that was all me. I was actually not paying attention and all." He replied back to me smoothly like he has said this before. But he kept his smile on his face as I felt my palms sweating on my hold in the bag and the jacket that was against my side, "You don't look like you're from around here."

"I just came in today, actually." I answered him carefully, seeing him nod his head and the smile somehow growing bigger, showing me that he was enjoying what he was doing.

"Oh really? You're a pilot?" He asked in interest. I nodded my head since for some reason that smile he had was making me tongue tied and almost dizzy. No guys have looked at me like this in a long time, and before he could say anything else, someone was calling out to him and getting his attention, almost to his annoyance.

"Luz! What in the hell! We need to get before Sobel kicks our asses!" Someone was yelling at him, a bunch of soldiers standing off in the distance and they were looking in our direction. Great, this makes it worse for me really, and I looked over and away from them since they were looking at me to see who I was and why I was talking to their friend. The man waved them off and then looked back at me now.

"I should get going." I said to him, already walking away from him within a monument before he could answer back. That was awkward, and I made it even more awkward from how I was acting in front of him. Was I trying to look like an idiot in front of a bunch of men on my first day in Georgia? I did succeed that, and even though he didn't rush up to meet with me again, I heard him call out behind me as I kept walking a fast pace.

"It was nice to run into you! Made my whole day!" He said with such confidence that I couldn't help but grin and blush from how he spoke it. He sounded so confidence in himself, but a hint of cockiness behind it. This was a first for me since with Aaron he was both polite and shy at the same time with me. But with this man, whom I only talked to for a few seconds, was confident in every way of the word. It was an interesting first day.

All thanks to a man named Luz.