Elaine Harmon, WWII WASP pilot, laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery: Report

The cremated remains of Baltimore-born Elaine Harmon, an aviator with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II, are finally being laid to rest Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery after a protracted battle against the U.S. Army that ultimately resulted in the passage of bipartisan legislation ensuring the servicewoman’s inurnment there.

According to to CBS News, before Harmon died in 2015, she “had left handwritten instructions to be inurned at Arlington, but the cemetery’s director denied the request, saying serving in the WASPs ’is not the same as active duty service as a member of the Department of Defense.’”

“The Army said no to the wrong family,” said Harmon’s granddaughter Erin Miller, CBS reported.

Armed with a massive show of support on the petition website Change.org and bipartisan legislative backing — including Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Maryland Democrat and Rep. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican who was the first woman to serve as a fighter-jet pilot in combat — Harmon’s family successfully guided legislation to a smooth landing on President Obama’s desk on May 20, when he signed the Women Airforce Service Pilot Arlington Inurnment Restoration Act into law.

The women received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009, but their historic significance was largely unknown before the push to get them into Arlington.

The availability for in-ground burial at Arlington is extremely limited by space, but eligibility for above-ground inurnment isn’t as restrictive, CBS reported.

Harmon learned to fly while an undergraduate at the University of Maryland after joining the Civil Aeronautics Authority Program and honing her craft at Piper Cubs at College Park Airport, The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday.

After training in 1944 at Avenger Field, Harmon was stationed at Nellis Air Base near Las Vegas, The Sun reported. She flew the AT-6 Texan, the PT-17 and BT-13 trainers, and co-piloted the B-17 Flying Fortress.

Historian Kate Landdeck told CBS that fewer than 100 WASPs are still alive, with the youngest being 93.