Petaluma veteran pilot flies again

Above Monday’s Veterans Day parade procession, sitting in the cockpit of a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, Petaluma resident and veteran Pam Wolf was flying high.

“It all came rushing back to me, I got very emotional up there at the controls,” Wolf said. “It’s been 35 years since I’ve done that.”

Wolf was a pilot during her service, often flying the same type of “Huey” helicopter thousands of parade spectators craned their necks to see as it rumbled above the procession.

But if it wasn’t for Congress’ decision in 1975 to allow women to enter military service academies, Wolf may never have discovered the joy of controlling an aircraft.

She enlisted in the armed services the earliest chance she got, trading in her high school cap and gown for a military uniform in 1973 at 18 years old.

During her first 18-month tour in South Korea, Wolf was a draftsman and cartographer, relegated to one of the roles deemed appropriate for women at the time. To her delight, she learned about a year and a half into her service that she and her fellow female service members were no longer barred from the U.S. Military, Naval and Air Force academies.

“I was thrilled that we were finally in the Army. Before, we had to wear skirts with nylons,” Wolf said. “Afterward, we were given boots and fatigues, we could sleep in tents on missions alongside the guys and we were issued M-16s.”

When she joined in 1973, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps created during WWII to separate male and female service members was still operational. It disbanded following the mandate to integrate male and female service members, a policy that also enabled Wolf to trade her drafting table for a helicopter cockpit.

Wolf entered the Air Force Academy the second year they began enrolling women, graduating in 1978 after a year of intensive study.

“Turns out, I was the 13th woman trained to be a helicopter Army pilot,” Wolf said.

Although Wolf and other women were still barred from combat missions at the time of her service, she piloted crucial support missions during her tour in South Korea from 1978 to 1979.

American troops remained in South Korea following the Korean War, some participating in operations to prevent North Korean aggression and to maintain the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ.

As a member of the Chinook Battalion, Wolf said she flew reconnaissance, resupply and training missions. When crucial radar stations that helped guide and detect aircraft went down, Wolf was among the team tasked to fly supplies and equipment to the remote, mountaintop sites.

She left the military after 10 years of service in 1983, going on to teach flight systems for then newly-introduced Apache helicopters. Training team members were given an opportunity to fly the new attack aircraft before they were inducted into service. Wolf said her 30-minute flight marked the first time a female commanded the controls of an Apache helicopter.

Wolf now works as a speaker for various engagements and as a docent at Santa Rosa’s Pacific Air Museum. Not surprisingly, the museum’s Huey helicopter is her favorite of the bunch, and she said she especially loves speaking to veterans familiar with the aircraft.

“People will say to me, ‘You have no idea how happy and joyous we would be when we would hear the wop-wop-wop sounds of a Huey helicopter coming in, because we knew we would be saved,’” Wolf said.

Over 7,000 Bell HU-1s - later redesignated UH-1a and nicknamed “Huey” - were deployed during the Vietnam War. For passenger Chuck Wolf, Pam’s husband and a Vietnam War veteran, riding in the Huey was also like a trip back in time. Monday’s joy ride over the parade procession was the first time since the war Chuck Wolf was in a Huey.

“She did such a great job, I was so impressed with her and how well she kept altitude,” Chuck Wolf said. “I was very proud of her.”

Petaluma Police Chief Ken Savano, a K-9 and friends of the helicopter’s private owners joined Chuck Wolf as passengers.