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Women Airforce Service Pilots
EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS: WASPS TAKE FLIGHT

This is the story of the WASP program, and of the courageous women who served our country in World War II.

Dawn Seymour (left) and five fellow WASPs at Fort Myers, Florida, 1944
​​​​​​​Courtesy of Ezra Magazine, Cornell University

During World War II, over 1,100 female civilian pilots formed the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), organized by Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love. They assembled to relieve the shortage of male pilots and give women a chance in military cockpits. These women explored military aviation, and exchanged new ideas and experiences. WASPs encountered unfair treatment and discrimination, but these aviatrices set the stage for women in the military today.

“Any girl who has flown at all grows used to the prejudice of most men pilots who will trot out any number of reasons why women can't possibly be good pilots…. The only way to show the disbelievers, the snickering hangar pilots, is to show them.”  -Cornelia Fort, WAFS

Anna Kronbeck
Junior Individual Website
Word Count: 1,200
Process Paper: 500

Yankee Doodle Pilots - WASP Marching Song - Nancy Parrish and KKG Singers

Header Photo: Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner, and Blanche Osborn at Lockbourne Army Air base, Ohio
Courtesy of National Public Radio