Mariana Drăgescu

Marie Ana Aurelia (Mariana) Drăgescu (7 September 1912 – 24 March 2013) was a Romanian military aviator during World War II. She was the last surviving member of the White Squadron, a team of female aviators who flew medical aircraft during World War II. Romania was the only country in the world to allow women to pilot medical missions during the war.

Biography Born 7 September 1912 in Craiova, Romania. Her mother was an "independent woman" and music teacher, and her father, a military man, had become a colonel after World War I. She recounted

During the country's communist era, the history of Romanian aviation and the contributions of Drăgescu and the other women of the White Squadron were ignored. Following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, their story received a more appropriate recognition.

Mariana Drăgescu was 100 when she died in Bucharest on 24 March 2013.

Honors Knight of the Order of the Star of Romania Order of Aeronautical Virtue Order of the German Eagle