Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, Beryl Marjorie Owens Paschich

Beryl Marjorie Owens (Paschich) enlisted in the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) on October 4, 1943. ¹ WASPS were responsible for ferrying planes, test flying, and towing targets for the military, though they had no official military status at the time. Owens Paschich graduated from class 44-3 on April 15, 1944, at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. ² Following graduation, Owens Paschich was sent to Dodge City Army Air Base in Kansas for advanced B-26 training. ² She was then assigned to Majors Army Airfield in Greenville, Texas. ² In October of 1944, she completed an intensive course in instrument flying. ³ During her time with the WASPS, she flew several aircraft including PT-13, BT-13, and AT-6. ⁴ After serving fifteen months, she was discharged on December 20, 1944. ^{1, 5} The WASPS were given official veteran status in 1977 with the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977. On March 10, 2010, Owens Paschich and her fellow WASPS were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. ⁶  

Owens Paschich was born in Canton, Texas to Bessie Sybil Wristen and John Thomas Owens. ^{7, 8} As a teenager, she participated in public speaking competitions, winning awards in extemporaneous speaking on several occasions. ⁹ She graduated from Baird High School and attended Abilene Christian College. ⁵ In 1940, she had completed one year of college and was working at Typistin Bank. ¹⁰

After the War, Owens Paschich was employed at the CAA Airway Communication Station at the Abilene Airport, the Acomita landing field in New Mexico (1946), and the Otto Communication Station near Moriarty, New Mexico. ⁵ She received her instructor’s rating at Graham-Bell Airport.¹¹ On May 4, 1947, she married Jack Millen Paschich in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ^{5, 12}  

Owens Paschich was a member of the National Organization for Women and the League of Women Voters. ¹¹ She was a participant in a writers’ group called “Las Maravillosas” in Albuquerque and in 1990 won an award for her submission to the SouthWest Writers Workshop Competition. Unfortunately, she died before the award was announced. ¹³

Owens Paschich was an advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and in 1977 and wrote a letter to the editor of the Albuquerque Journal regarding the bill. In her letter, she argued that successful businesswomen who were against the ERA, “fear that with equal rights, it may get crowded at the top. The rank and file of women, however, who are faced with discrimination every day in employment and education do not agree.” ¹⁴ In 1978, Owens Paschich was more direct in her Albuquerque Journal editorial in which she told an opponent of the ERA and women’s rights to “go jump in a lake.” ¹⁵