Women Airforce Service Pilots
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots[1] or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization.
Women Airforce Service Pilots | |
---|---|
250px | |
The WASP badge | |
overview | |
Formed | August 5, 1943 |
Preceding agencies | Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), formed September 1942 Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), formed September 1942 |
Dissolved | December 20, 1944 |
Employees | 1,830 accepted for training 1,074 completed training |
Parent agency | United States Army Air Forces |
Their members were United States federal civil service employees.
Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft and trained other pilots. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II. The WASP and its members had no military standing.
Women Airforce Service Pilots Media
Hazel Ying Lee in a Link trainer, 1944
Short film about the Women Airforce Service Pilots, part of the Army–Navy Screen Magazine film series in 1943
Florene Watson shown preparing a P-51D-5-NA for a ferry flight from a factory at Inglewood, California
Helen W. Snapp, flying for the Low-target Squadron, at Camp Stewart, Georgia June 1944
President Barack Obama signing the WASP Congressional Gold Medal bill into law
Madge Moore showing the WASP Congressional Gold Medal she received in Washington, D.C.
References
- ↑ "Cornwall Postmaster Ferried Warplanes in World War II," The Evening News, Oct 8, 1971, page 3a; "Women Pilots May Become Members of the Army Air Forces," The Reading Eagle, Nov. 1, 1943, page 20; "Veterans Begin Aid Fight," The Age, May 25, 1977, page 20; "Veterans Bill Advances," St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 4, 1977, page 3A; "Women in the military," Sarasota Harold Tribune, May 26, 1995, 5B; "Sunday's the Day for Washington Gals To Fly Somewhere for Breakfast," The Evening Independent, Jul. 31, 1947, page 6; "War Prisoner's Wife Enters Flying Group," Prescott Evening Courier, Jun, 16, 1944, page 8; and "Early Decision Pilots Her Through Life," Toledo Blade, Jan.10, 1975, page 10.