Segment 16: Those Amazing Women and Their Flying Machines
Come back in time. 1942, Allies losing on all fronts. Roosevelt orders every able bodied Air Force pilot to fly combat missions. But who will do the domestic military flying? Aviator Jacqueline Cochran has an idea: women pilots! With the blessing of then Col. Hap Arnold, The Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) is born. In their few years of service, WASPS will fly over 60 million air miles of wartime duty, flying every plane in the US arsenal. 1078 will earn their wings and 38 will die in the course of duty. And when they are disbanded, it will be decades before women are allowed back into the cockpits of military planes.
I know. Mama was a WASP. This year is the 60th anniversary of those amazing women. My sister and I go with Mom to her bi- annual WASP reunion. We watch bodies becoming frailer, eyesight dimmer, and memories slower. And yet, when they talk of what they did, their place in history—I swear they shine. I see their courage, their love of flying, their pride in country. and the sacrifice for which they would gladly give their last full measure of devotion.
This is Eileen McDargh celebrating the spirit of the WASPS.
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