A Conversation with Eileen Bjorkman, Author of Fly Girls Revolt

Eileen Bjorkman is a fellow member of my Zoom writing group, which emerged as one of the benefits of the pandemic. Our group is scattered across time zones so we couldn’t hold monthly meetings in person even if we wanted to. We are at different stages in our projects, from initial research to, in Eileen’s case, publication of her book Fly Girls Revolt: The Story of the Women Who Kicked Open the Door to Fly in Combat in May 2023.

An anecdote illustrates Eileen’s creativity and generosity. In my own research, I came across an account of a hot-air balloonist who ascended 500 feet in the air above Washington at the start of the Civil War. As our group talked about what he might have seen from that height, I forgot we had an expert in our midst. Eileen did some back-of-the-envelope math calculations that I never would known to do and also suggested the view from the top of the Washington Monument as an approximation. Then she offered, “I could try taking someone up in my airplane and have them see what they can see with a set of binoculars from 500 feet or something like that. Just let me know!” I don’t have many (any) writing colleagues who can make an offer like that!

This also gives you an idea how Eileen’s book benefits from her knowledge of flying, her career as an Air Force officer, and her deep respect for the women who “revolted.”

Below are a few questions I had for Eileen about the subject of the book and her approach to researching and writing it.

Q: For those who have not yet read  your book, who are the Fly Girls in the title and what was their revolt?

A: “Fly girl” was a term believed to be coined in the 1920s that referred to any young woman who didn’t conform to societal norms. But the term applies doubly to women of that era who became pilots.

When women were first allowed to train as military pilots in the 1970s and 1980s, they were prohibited by laws from flying combat aircraft. The “revolt” was the 20-year battle the women waged to overturn the laws and then get the military to agree to train women in combat aircraft.

Q: I am taken by their dedication and commitment to their profession and the country. Why was it so important for them to be able not just to fly, but to fly in combat?

A: The combat exclusion laws weren’t fair to anyone. First, not flying combat aircraft meant that women would never get to the highest ranks in the military, where combat experience or training is so valued. Second, the combat exclusion meant that commanders of combat squadrons weren’t necessarily getting the best people to fly their airplanes. Typically, the people who graduate at or near the top of their pilot training class go to fly combat aircraft, but it didn’t matter how good a woman was, she would be sent to fly non-combat aircraft. A man who ranked below her would fly the combat aircraft instead. Third, the combat rules were ambiguous, and commanders had a hard time deciding if it was okay for women to fly into hostile areas where they might be shot at, even though they weren’t flying combat aircraft. Some commanders pulled women off flights that were heading to hostile areas and had to bring in male pilots to replace them.

Q: This brings to mind one of the challenges you did so well. You had to write for people who know the ins and outs of flying, those who know the military but not necessarily flying, and then the rest of us. How did you figure that out?

A: I’ve had a fair amount of practice writing for non-flying and non-military audiences, both from my active-duty days and from writing magazine articles, so I’m pretty good at spotting military and aviation jargon. Sometimes I explain the jargon, and sometimes I write around it. But if I spend more than a sentence or two explaining something, I ask myself whether it’s worth including. If it’s something that’s central to the story, then I’ll take the time to explain it. If not, I might just toss it. I also try to use different beta readers, some who know the military and/or flying and some who don’t. They point out areas where I may need more explanation, or where I have overly simplified something so that a military person might object. But I’ve generally found that military people (including me) don’t mind the extra explanations intended for civilians. I sometimes learn something as well! I tend to err on the side of explanation.

 Q: When you bring in your own experience, it definitely adds to the story. Did you always know you would share your own life in the book? How did you figure out where to insert it?

A: I always figured I would include some of my experiences. I toyed around with bringing myself in during the chapters from the 1970s, but I finally decided on the 1980s with some backstory. With so many characters in the book, I tried to keep each character, including me, in as few places as possible to reduce confusion. And 1980 was a natural breakpoint, since it was the year I came into the Air Force and also the year the first women graduated from the military academies.

Q: Most of my primary sources are the records of long-dead people, but you interview people who were either directly involved or a step or two away. What advice do you have to prepare for these interviews? Did you contact people cold, or have some entrée? When in the research-writing process?

A: I think being retired Air Force helps establish a comfort level right away. People don’t have to worry about using military jargon because I get most of it already. When I’m preparing for an interview on a topic where I don’t have extensive background, I try to learn as much as possible before I start the interview. And I also try to learn as much as possible about the person I am interviewing so I don’t have to ask questions like where they went to school, etc. For people who don’t have bios on the Internet, I usually start off with some background to get the juices flowing and then ask about the specific experiences I’m interested in.

One of the problems I had with Fly Girls was that there is no single woman whose story stretches across the entire timeframe in the book. Instead, I had to piece together different experiences to show the whole picture. I interviewed some women specifically about what they did during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Other women I interviewed about going to pilot training.

I did contact a few people out of the blue, mostly people I found on LinkedIn, but most of the people I either knew, or I got an introduction from someone I knew. In some cases, the Women Military Aviators organization put me in touch with people. I don’t think anyone turned me down for an interview—it was obvious that women (and some men) wanted to tell their stories! As for timing, I always try to do as much research as I can on a particular topic before I start interviewing to help me focus the interviews. For example, I read several articles and a book about the first women who went through Air Force pilot training before I interviewed one of them. That way, I already had a basic outline of what happened so I could focus on her specific experience instead of her having to explain pilot training step-by-step.

 Q: How have you used social media or other platforms to promote the book? What would you recommend that has worked best for you so far?

A: I mostly use Twitter. I have the most followers on Twitter by far compared to other social media, and I tweet about aviation history topics in general. Promoting the book on Twitter fits in naturally, and many people on Twitter buy books. I do a little bit on Facebook, but it seems my Facebook followers don’t buy a lot of books. I don’t do much on LinkedIn because my persona on there is my day job, but other people are posting about the book and tagging me, so I’m just riding on that wave.

Q: You did a bibliography by chapter—what made you decide to use this system rather than more traditional endnotes or footnotes?

A: I wanted the book to be fun and not have an academic feel, so I avoided endnotes/footnotes in the final product, although I did use endnotes in my drafts to keep my references straight. My original plan was to strip out the references and put them in the back, labeled by page number and short quote. But my word count was adding up quickly and my deadline was approaching, so I decided to go with just the bibliography by chapter.

Q: You’ve published a few op-eds recently, such as in the Los Angeles Times—why is the message in your book relevant today?

A: There are still so few women in both commercial and military aviation. About 5 percent of commercial and military pilots are women. If we’re going to have the best military and be a world leader in aviation, we need to use the talents of our entire population, especially given the shortages we currently face in military recruiting, and civilian pilots and mechanics. When half of our workforce doesn’t consider the military or aviation to be a viable career because they see limited women in those fields, we will continue to struggle.

Eileen tweets as @AviationHistGal with, as her handles suggests, bits about aviation history. Her website provides background about her career and how to purchase this and her previous books.