Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) of World War II

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The story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots is far from being over. The majority of the more than eight hundred WASPs living today regularly attend the national biennial reunions and numerous regional reunions. The vitality of the national organization of WASP veterans is considerable. “It is probably the strongest support group I have other than my own family. We are a very cohesive group. We seem to generate our own energy once we get together for a few hours,” said Ethel Finley.1 Through the s, the WASP organization focused on obtaining retroactive militarization. Now it campaigns on behalf of other women pilots of military planes and continues in its efforts to preserve and engage the history of the WASPs. “We were all proud of what we did, but I was proud of it in , too; the only trouble was nobody was proud of me then. Now they’re all proud of me, so I might as well be proud too,” said Katherine (Kaddy) Landry Steele.2 At WASP reunions, the link between the WASPs and contemporary women military pilots is unmistakable. Women pilots from the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard regularly attend reunions to meet their heroes, thank their flying ancestors, and share stories. “We set a presence of women in aviation.The women [pilots] today, they say, ‘We look up to you; you started things and you stuck through it; and men had to accept you. If it hadn’t been for you we wouldn’t be flying today,’” said Betty Stagg Turner.3 Former WASPs continue to make outstanding contributions—nationally, in their communities, and within their families. Many WASP veterans remain active pilots. “My identity will always be as a woman who flew or flies, and that cannot change,” said Madge Rutherford Minton.4 Perhaps the most valuable contribution the WASPs have made occurred long after World War II had ended. What makes the WASPs heroes is not their flying records, their war records, or their acts of heroism during the war; instead , they are heroes because when their culture turned against them, when everyone refused to acknowledge their efforts and achievements, they continCoda 9  ued to fight for recognition, for benefits that were rightfully theirs, and for the place they had earned in history to be publicly acknowledged. The WASPs are heroes because they would not give up. With great reserve and even greater dignity, they worked diligently and quietly for more than thirty years, until they received their rightful places as veterans and the next flock of women military pilots was able to take their place in the skies. As Thelma K. (Hench) Miller said: “Women can do it—that’s the whole thing. And that’s what helps these gals today. There’s no question about it. You still have people fighting that, so you have to keep fighting back. Every inch of the way, you have to keep telling them, you have to keep telling them.”5 Coda |  ...