I recently embarked on a personal project in an effort to practice my portraiture and find meaning in the time I spend each day painting. I began painting Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Someone told me to paint what I know, what is near and dear to my heart, and I decided this was service members and their families. I find myself overcome by emotion to see the strength, dedication and selflessness by this group of people I have been apart of for 20 years as the spouse of an active duty pilot. It is an honor to use my talents to start this journey by bringing attention to this historic and brave group of women.
In 1942, as the country reeled from the attack on Pearl Harbor, trained male pilots were in short supply. Qualified pilots were needed to fight the war. The Army also was desperate for pilots to deliver newly built trainer aircraft to the flight schools in the South. Twenty-eight experienced civilian women pilots volunteered to take those ferrying jobs. They formed the country’s first female squadron late summer 1942.
Between November 1942 and December 1944, 1,074 more women were trained to fly first in Houston and then moved to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX. Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran founded the two programs (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and Women’s Flying Training Detachment) that became the WASP. Women Airforce Service Pilots flew 70 hours each of primary and advanced training. They practiced take-offs and landings, snap rolls, parachute bail-outs, night flying, cross country flying, and aerobatics. Primary instructors even flew trainees upside down to demonstrate the importance of safety belts. Along with learning to fly the women also studied hydraulics, meteorology, Morse code, aerodynamics, physics, and airplane maintenance in ground school.
WASP flew every aircraft in the military’s arsenal. In addition to ferrying, they towed gunnery targets, transported equipment and non-flying personnel, and flight-tested aircraft that had been repaired before the men were allowed to fly them again. For over two years, the WASP performed a wide variety of aviation-related jobs and served at more than 120 bases around the country. In total, WASP flew more than 60 million miles in service to their country
Although they were stationed at U.S. military bases and flew U.S. Army Air Force planes, WASP were classified as civilians. By 1943, the issue had also become a concern for the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, who, like the rest of the nation, had become convinced of the value of the program to the war efforts. In 1944, Representative John Costello (California) sponsored House Bill 4219 to commission the WASP as full-fledged military personnel. It failed.
In the years following the war, the WASP story was rarely told. After the program was disbanded at the end of 1944, WASP records were sealed, classified, and stored in the government archives for 33 years. In 1976, the United States Air Force announced that women would be permitted to fly military aircraft, labeling it a “first” in U.S. history. As women who had flown for the nation over 30 years earlier, WASP united in an effort to set the record straight. In 1977, with the help of Senator Barry Goldwater (Arizona), Representatives Lindy Boggs (Louisiana) and Margaret Heckler (Massachusetts), the WASP were finally granted veteran status. Seven years later, in 1984, their service medals came in the mail.
On March 10, 2010, the WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their pioneering military service, exemplary record, and revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. (text adapted from Sarah Byrn Rickman, WASP author and historian)