eligible. Women pilots were required to be at least 5 feet tall and between the ages of 21 and 35. A high school education was also necessary, in addition to at least 200 hours of flying time. The number of flight hours was gradually reduced, while the height requirement was increased. In the end, 1,830 candidates were accepted, and 1,074 women completed the program.
According to WASP pilot Violet âViâ Cowden, WASPs did 80 percent of all US flying from 1943 to 1944. They flew more than 60 million miles (96 million kilometers) in every type of military plane. Besides delivering aircraft to military airfields, other duties included towing targets, flight instruction, and testing planes. It was a seven-day-a-week job.
WASPs.
Courtesy of the US Air Force
Thirty-eight WASPs died in service, beginning with Cornelia Fort, who died on March 21, 1943. She was on a ferrying flight when a male pilot clipped the wings of the plane she was flying. Fort was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty for the US military. Gertrude Tompkins Silver disappeared while on a mission flying a P-51 to California. After an extensive search, the army ruled that she was missing and presumed dead.
Acts of sabotage against the WASPs were common on some airfields, particularly Camp Davis in North Carolina. WASPs found sugar in their planesâ gas tanks (which clogs the engines); their tires blew out, radios stopped working, and planes quit in mid-air. When Lorraine Rodgers had to bail from her plane, investigators found that her rudder cables had been cut. The WASPs learned to befriend the mechanics and check their own planes before takeoff.
In the beginning, few people outside the military knew about the WASP program. Then media coverage started to grow. It was often negative, like when
Time
magazine called the WASPs âunnecessary and undesirable,â even though the accident rate of the WASPs was only 9 percent compared to 11 percent among male pilots. Even with the Army Air Forces recommendation to admit the WASPs as members of the military, Congress voted against it.
As the tide turned in the war, an end to the conflict seemed evident. Rumors began circulating that the WASPs would be disbanded. The rumor became fact when the WASP program was canceled on December 20, 1944. Vi Cowden later explained, âWhen the men came back, they wanted their jobs back. So they deactivated us.â Many of the former WASPs were unable to get flying jobs after the war ended.
Some WASPs refused to give up on recognition. They had served their country, and some had died in service for their country. Thirty-three years later, Congress voted to give the WASPs veteranâs status, retroactive to their initial service. In the Senate, the vote was unanimous. On November 23, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill into law:
Officially declaring the Women Airforce Service Pilots as having served on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States for purposes of laws administered by the Veterans Administration.
Just as surprising as how long it took for the WASPs to be recognized was the fact that that no branch of the military accepted female pilots until 1974 or later. The first to do so was the navy, which admitted six women to the US Naval Flight Training School. The first to graduate was Commander Barbara Allen Rainey.
The navyâs first combat pilot was Lieutenant Kara Spears Hultgreen. She was killed in 1994, when the left engine of her F-14 stalled during an attempt to land on the USS
Abraham Lincoln
about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of San Diego.
Later in 1974, the army began training female helicopter pilots. The first woman army pilot was Second Lieutenant Sally D. Woolfolk, who primarily flew UH-1 Huey helicopters.
Women were admitted to the Air Force pilot training program in 1976, navigator training in 1977, and fighter-pilot training in 1993, the same year that American women were first allowed to
According to WASP pilot Violet âViâ Cowden, WASPs did 80 percent of all US flying from 1943 to 1944. They flew more than 60 million miles (96 million kilometers) in every type of military plane. Besides delivering aircraft to military airfields, other duties included towing targets, flight instruction, and testing planes. It was a seven-day-a-week job.
WASPs.
Courtesy of the US Air Force
Thirty-eight WASPs died in service, beginning with Cornelia Fort, who died on March 21, 1943. She was on a ferrying flight when a male pilot clipped the wings of the plane she was flying. Fort was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty for the US military. Gertrude Tompkins Silver disappeared while on a mission flying a P-51 to California. After an extensive search, the army ruled that she was missing and presumed dead.
Acts of sabotage against the WASPs were common on some airfields, particularly Camp Davis in North Carolina. WASPs found sugar in their planesâ gas tanks (which clogs the engines); their tires blew out, radios stopped working, and planes quit in mid-air. When Lorraine Rodgers had to bail from her plane, investigators found that her rudder cables had been cut. The WASPs learned to befriend the mechanics and check their own planes before takeoff.
In the beginning, few people outside the military knew about the WASP program. Then media coverage started to grow. It was often negative, like when
Time
magazine called the WASPs âunnecessary and undesirable,â even though the accident rate of the WASPs was only 9 percent compared to 11 percent among male pilots. Even with the Army Air Forces recommendation to admit the WASPs as members of the military, Congress voted against it.
As the tide turned in the war, an end to the conflict seemed evident. Rumors began circulating that the WASPs would be disbanded. The rumor became fact when the WASP program was canceled on December 20, 1944. Vi Cowden later explained, âWhen the men came back, they wanted their jobs back. So they deactivated us.â Many of the former WASPs were unable to get flying jobs after the war ended.
Some WASPs refused to give up on recognition. They had served their country, and some had died in service for their country. Thirty-three years later, Congress voted to give the WASPs veteranâs status, retroactive to their initial service. In the Senate, the vote was unanimous. On November 23, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill into law:
Officially declaring the Women Airforce Service Pilots as having served on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States for purposes of laws administered by the Veterans Administration.
Just as surprising as how long it took for the WASPs to be recognized was the fact that that no branch of the military accepted female pilots until 1974 or later. The first to do so was the navy, which admitted six women to the US Naval Flight Training School. The first to graduate was Commander Barbara Allen Rainey.
The navyâs first combat pilot was Lieutenant Kara Spears Hultgreen. She was killed in 1994, when the left engine of her F-14 stalled during an attempt to land on the USS
Abraham Lincoln
about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of San Diego.
Later in 1974, the army began training female helicopter pilots. The first woman army pilot was Second Lieutenant Sally D. Woolfolk, who primarily flew UH-1 Huey helicopters.
Women were admitted to the Air Force pilot training program in 1976, navigator training in 1977, and fighter-pilot training in 1993, the same year that American women were first allowed to
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