Ola Mildred Rexroat

Ola Mildred Rexroat (August 28, 1917 – June 28, 2017) was the only Native American woman to serve in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

Early life Rexroat was born in Argonia, Kansas in 1917, to a Euro-American father and an Oglala mother. Her father was a publisher and editor and moved frequently. The family moved to South Dakota when she was young, and she spent at least part of her youth with her grandmother on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Starting in 1923, the family moved so she could attend public school in Wynona, Oklahoma. She graduated from the St. Mary's Episcopal Indian School in Springfield, South Dakota, in 1932. Rexroat initially enrolled in a teachers college in Chadron, Nebraska, but left before completing her degree to work for what is now the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a year. She earned a bachelor's degree in art from the University of New Mexico in 1939. She also helped transport cargo and personnel.

When the WASPs were disbanded in December 1944, she joined the US Air Force, where she served for ten years as an air traffic controller at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico during the Korean War.

After her time in the Air Force Reserves was complete in 1954 she continued to work as an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration for 33 years.

In 2009, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal along with all the other WASP for outstanding accomplishments.

Personal life and death Rexroat raised one son. Immediately before her death she was the last surviving WASP in South Dakota and one of 275 living WASPs out of the original 1,074.

Legacy Several months after her death, the airfield operations building at Ellsworth Air Force Base was named after her.

Her life inspired a picture book for children named At the Mountain's base.