Mildred "Micky"
Axton
Micky took her first airplane ride at age 11 and was hooked on flying.
She learned to fly in 1940 at Coffeyville Junior College in the
Civil Pilot Training program. The WASP program required that all
applicants posses a pilot certificate, so with that in hand, she
joined the program in 1943. Micky was in the seventh graduating
class of the program. She flew the training aircraft, as a test
pilot for the UC-78 and in 1944 she was a crewmember on a Boeing
B-29. After deactivation from the service Boeing Airplane Company
employed Micky as a Flight Test Crew Member in the Engineering Flight
Test Area. Micky also spent the years from 1958 to 1969 teaching
various subjects including aeronautics and debate at the Wichita,
Kansas, East High School.
Micky still flies whenever she has a chance and is active in the
OX-5 Aviation Pioneers, 99’s and the Commemorative Air Force.
She has been named OX-5 Aviation Pioneers “Aviation Historian
of the Year” and Distinguished Alumna” of the Coffeyville
Community College. Among her many honors, in 1998, the Jayhawk Wing
of the Commemorative Air Force named their restored PT-23 “Miss
Micky” in her honor. |