WASP-Women Airforce Service Pilots-American Patriots, Trailblazers & Heroines WWII

WASP
Women Airforce Service Pilots
American Patriots, Trailblazers & Heroines WWII
By Emma Gee

The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. America is at war! In 1942, the Pacific as well as the European theaters of war desperately needs combat pilots.
Daring young American women pilots wait in the wings for the chance to prove their skills as military aircraft ferry pilots.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is in favor of women flying military aircraft; she believes that ‘Women in this particular case are a weapon waiting to be used’.
The commander of the United States Army Air Forces intones that he does not think that a young girl can handle the large B-17 bomber in a heavy storm. He also feels that the American people are not ready for women to sit in the cockpit of military aircraft; they view it as women taking jobs away from men.
Trailblazer Jackie Cochran, famous American flyer does not take ‘no’ for an answer, she continues the struggle for women pilots to ferry military aircraft in the USA. She recruits twenty-five qualified women pilots to ferry military aircraft in Britain for the (ATA) Air Transport Auxiliary to prove that American women pilots are capable of flying military aircraft as the British women pilots have done successfully since 1940.
At the same time Nancy Harkness Love, well-known American aviator paves the way for women in military aviation. She organizes and commands an experimental ferry squadron, the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) consisting of twenty-eight highly qualified pilots to ferry American military aircraft in the USA under the Air Transport Command.
When Jackie Cochran returns to the USA from Britain, more than a thousand courageous (WASP) Women’s Airforce Service Pilots under the direction of the unwavering Jackie Cochran take to the skies to ferry every type of military aircraft from the P-51 Mustang fighter planes to the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers to whatever destination required in the continental USA.
These determined gutsy women pilots, measure up to their male counterparts, contrary to the beliefs of others. They prove their valuable contribution to the war effort. The plucky young women overcome the bias they face and show their true mettle to America. Thirty-eight of these devoted patriots sacrifice their lives for their country. When the war ended so did their short career as military ferry pilots, their undaunted efforts forgotten.