CTWG: East Haven resident recalls her service with CAP

On a Wing and a MemoryPosted by Shore Publishing on Jul 02 2009, 10:04 AM
East Haven, person of the week, Eileen Lawlor
By Jason J. Marchi, East Haven Courier Correspondent:

It was the time when most homes had ice boxes instead of refrigerators and a block of ice cost 15 or 20 cents and lasted two days. It was the time when there was no television, movies were 25 cents for a double feature (including a cartoon and a newsreel), and all other news was communicated by newspapers and radio. It was the time of WWII and, while most young American men where fighting the Germans in Europe or the Japanese in the South Pacific, the women left at home in the states kept the country running.

If you were a teenager at the time like Eileen Lawlor was (she was Eileen Purcell at the time) and were too young to join the military but still wanted to help the American war effort, you could join the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). Eileen did just that.

“My parents were not happy that I liked flying,” Eileen admits, though flying wasn’t her only interest at the time. “I was in the rifle club, and we met every Thursday night at Winchester’s. I’d get all decked out in my uniform, with my rifle over my shoulder, walk down to the corner, get on the trolley car, and not a soul would even look at me twice. Today I’d get arrested!”

When not flying or attending shooting classes, Eileen trained for search and rescue operations as part of her CAP duties.

“There was a winter day [when] we got a call to go find a small plane that went down on the Sleeping Giant. Groups of cadets were ordered to cover different areas and to come back by 3 o’clock. It was very cold and the snow was a foot deep and they gave me the compass—one other girl had a compass.

“Well, we got lost,” Eileen continues. “So the first girl took out her compass and dropped it because she took off her mittens and her hands were cold. It dropped right down in front of her [in the snow] but we couldn’t find it. So I got my compass in hand and I was very impressed with myself. I walked this way and a branch knocked the compass right out of my hand. We couldn’t find that one either. Another search unit had to come and find us.”

Eileen’s CAP service was a time of excitement and purpose for a young person thrilled with airplanes, and yet, when the war ended, any sense of urgency to remain in the patrol ended. That’s when Eileen finally obliged her father’s wishes by not seeking any type of career that would have her working inside of airplanes.

“I went to work for the phone company making great money at the time,” Eileen says.
She remained there for nearly 11 years until she married and started a family.

Her interest in aviation rubbed off on her son, Kevin, who grew up longing to follow in his mother’s inspiring footsteps. Once old enough, he joined CAP. Another of her sons, Michael, has risen to different heights as East Haven’s state representative.

Eight years ago Kevin (today a state’s attorney), along with his brothers and father, gave Eileen as a present a chance to return to the skies in a WWII era AT-6 flight-training plane.

“You should have seen the look on the young pilot’s face, with Methuselah climbing up on the wing,” Eileen says with a laugh. “I got in and it was heaven. He let me fly it. [I had] the super-deluxe package and the pilot kept asking me, ‘Are you ready for this?’ and I said ‘I’m ready, I’m ready.’ He flew us upside down and inside out and it was absolutely incredible.”