Women of the WASP

Women Air­force Ser­vice Pilots: The Fly­girls of WWII

This is a story that went untold for too long. Until recently, the world knew lit­tle about the Women Air­force Ser­vice Pilots of WWII. These women served their coun­try with­out ask­ing for any­thing in return. And now they are finally receiv­ing the credit and honor that they deserve. THe WASP were the first female pilots to ever fly active US mil­i­tary air­craft. Though these women were not enlisted active mil­i­tary per­son­nel, they were in fact des­ig­nated as civil­lian vol­un­teers. From fer­ry­ing bombers to fly­ing fight­ers for tar­get prac­tice, these patri­otic women helped forge the way of the future for women pilots in the armed forced. Read their incred­i­ble story, writ­ten by a WASP his­tory expert in issue 21 of Pilot­Mag. The Wings Over The Rock­ies Air & Space Museum honor the WASP at their Annual Spread­ing Wings Gala this year. To learn more about the Wings Gala, click here. 

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arly in Octo­ber, a World War II air-to-air B-26 tow-target pilot cut a sym­bolic rib­bon at Wings Over the Rock­ies Avi­a­tion and Space Museum in Den­ver, Col­orado. Just beyond the rib­bon, high above the pol­ished floor, over­look­ing the beau­ti­ful planes stretched wingtip to wingtip across the pris­tine hangar, is a trib­ute to an unsung group of heroes: the Women Air­force Ser­vice Pilots – for many years con­sid­ered ‘the best kept secret of World War II.’ On that spe­cial day, when WASP Deanie Par­rish cut the rib­bon for the FLYGIRLS OF WWII exhibit, the secret was out at Wings Over the Rockies.

For six­teen years, it has been my honor to part­ner with this WASP, who served her coun­try dur­ing WWII by tow­ing a sleeve tar­get behind her B-26 Mar­tin Marauder as ‘green gun­ners’ in B-24s ‘prac­ticed’ fir­ing live ammu­ni­tion at the tar­get. This fear­less, spunky lady pilot has always believed  With God’s help, noth­ing is impos­si­ble. I agree, and once my mother the WASP joined me on my mis­sion to share the little-known his­tory of the Women Air­force Ser­vice Pilots with Amer­ica, we never looked back …

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