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Congressional medal event will be missing Springfield legend

ABOVE: Caro Bayley Bosca continued to fly and owned a plane with her brother, Robert, until 1992. Here she sits in a replica of the Pitts Special biplane in which she became 1951 Women's International Aerobatic Champion. Contributed photo

Submitted ABOVE: Caro Bayley Bosca continued to fly and owned a plane with her brother, Robert, until 1992. Here she sits in a replica of the Pitts Special biplane in which she became 1951 Women's International Aerobatic Champion. Contributed photo

ENLARGE PHOTO

Nick Daggy/Cox News Service

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Tom Stafford, Staff Writer Updated 2:32 AM Wednesday, March 10, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — Today, at a gathering in Washington, D.C., 1,114 women who served as Women Air Service Pilots during World War II will be honored with bronze versions of a special Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can give civilians.

It’s an event Springfield native Caro Bayley Bosca would have loved.

“The WASPs were a huge part of our mother’s life, both early ... and even more so over her last years,” daughter Caro Gray Bosca said in an e-mail from her Boston home.

“It’s very sad that she is not here to witness the ceremony. As (a former) president of the WASPs, she would have been front and center.”

The obituary published after Mrs. Bosca’s Sept. 13, 2007, death from pancreatic cancer outlined her career in the group that carried out military work as civilian volunteers.

Already a pilot, “In May of 1943, Caro traveled to Sweetwater, Texas, where she entered the Woman’s Airforce Service Program (WASP) as part of Class 43-W-7. She received her silver wings at graduation in November of that year. Reporting to Biggs Field in El Paso, Texas, she was part of a B-25 two-target squadron. While serving in the military, she flew the SBC Dauntless, SB2C Helldiver, AT-6, AT-7, AT-11, BT-13, PT-17, P-47 Thunderbolt, B-25 Billy Mitchell Bomber and the B-26.”

One of the WASP jobs was to ferry military aircraft from production facilities to military bases. The two-target squadron Bosca was in towed targets in the air so men could practice anti-aircraft skills using live ammunition.

With peacetime commercial aviation jobs going to men, Caro Bayley flew with aerobatic shows after the war and set two altitude records that led her to be named Mademoiselle magazine’s Aviation Woman of the Year in 1951.

She then married leather goods producer Orsino Hugo Bosca and returned to Springfield to raise a family.

Her daughter said the Bosca family did not receive an invitation to today’s event. However, Springfielder Sherry Ringler, a longtime friend of Mrs. Bosca, will be on hand to pick up the medal and deliver it to Mrs. Bosca’s son, D’Orsi.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.

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