EDGEWATER — Joan Barton is afraid of heights — but that never stopped her from joining the Air Force in the 1950s, becoming a pilot or joining Amelia Earhart's coveted The Ninety-Nines plane racing club.
"It's been a life of adventure," Barton said.
On Wednesday, the now 79-year-old veteran will be honored in a Veterans Day celebration alongside friends, family, the community and other vets who live with at The Breakers in Edgewater.
Barton's daughter Brenna Sheridan said it was of little surprise her mother chose an aviation-oriented career since she came from a military background.
But for a woman who never fully conquered her fear of heights, Barton achieved quite an impressive portfolio of accomplishments at a time when few women sought military careers.
In 1954, an 18-year-old Barton joined the Air Force at the Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso, Fla. as a supply clerk, ordering parts for the B47 and B52 bomber squadron.
A year later, when many of her cohorts began to get married, a spot opened up for her as a flight attendant serving her mostly all-male comrades on flights around the world: Hawaii, California and Tokyo to name a few stops along her route.
When she finally turned 21, she became eligible for pilot training and eventually earned her private and commercial licenses.
Sheridan said one of her earliest memories as a girl, about 5 or 6 years old, was flying with her mother and a friend across their then home state of Utah for lunch so her mother could log practice hours.
After gaining her credentials, Barton joined The Ninety-Nines — an international aviation organization for pilots who are women that was founded by Earhart in 1929.
In the club, women would race their single-engine propeller plane against other women pilots for a show of sport. It's an organization Barton said it has been "a great honor to be a part of."
After three years, Barton retired from the Air Force and went on to marry an air traffic controller and fellow military cohort and have a family.
Her daughter, who lives in Andersonville, was a domestic and international flight attendant with American Airlines in Chicago for 25 years.
She said each year she and her mother celebrate Veterans Day and Memorial Day together in the city, and she enjoys watching her mother use a "secret military language" with other Breakers residents.
At Wednesday's ceremony at The Breakers, 5333 N. Sheridan Road, Barton and other veterans will be celebrated with a bagpipe performance from Rickover Naval Academy students, a flag ceremony and other special honors.
Barton said being able to serve her country in the military was one of the proudest moments in her life.
Yet for all that Barton has accomplished, she remains humble.
She said as far as being one of the only women at her base at the time, the men were "all very professional" and accepted her as their own.
She said there's nothing special she did, or could do, to get over her fear of flying, yet she became a pilot anyway because she was "just so determined." Knowing her mother, there was "no way she was going to give up" despite her fears, her daughter said.
"People ask what's the difference between being brave and acting brave — there is none," her daughter said. "You just have to fake it and overcome and just act it out. That's what being brave really is, knowing you're going to be afraid of something and just doing it anyway."
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