From 1942- 1944, during World War II, over a 1,000 women left homes and jobs to become the first women to fly for the US military. They became the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the WASP, flying ferrying missions in the US. They were promised military status, but they were disbanded without benefits in 1944, and their records were sealed. The FLY GIRLS portraits celebrate the fearless women who defied gender stereotypes during WWII, and who then spent decades fighting to gain recognition and secure their place in history. Each portrait combines vintage photos, artifacts, and news headlines which tell the story of the WASP.
The Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
1047 women joined the Women Air Force Service Pilots, WASPS, and 38 died while flying planes for the US military. At the end of the war their records were sealed, and none received veteran's benefits. Women were not officially permitted to fly planes for the US Air Force until 1976. This exhibition tells a sobering story of broken promises that happened 80 years ago.
Despite their military training, they were classified as civilians, and were not conferred military or veterans’ benefits. WASP records were sealed and classified for 30 years. The WASPS rose up in 1976, organized, and demanded recognition. They were finally granted limited veteran benefits in 1977. President Obama honored surviving WASPS Gold Medals of Honor in 2010.
WASP flew every aircraft in the Army’s arsenal. In addition to ferrying, they towed gunnery targets, transported equipment and non-flying personnel, and flight-tested aircraft that had been repaired before the men were allowed to fly them again. For over two years, the WASP went on to perform a wide variety of aviation-related jobs and to serve at more than 120 bases around the country
Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran founded the two programs (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and Women’s Flying Training Detachment) that became the WASP.
Cornelia Fort
One of the first WASPS was Nashvillian Cornelia Fort. She was also the first fatality. She died at age 24 while flying a WASP mission. Fort, a former debutante from Nashville, Tennessee, witnessed Pearl Harbor being attacked from her plane while flying over Honolulu.
At the Twilight's Last Gleaming (excerpt)
written by Cornelia Fort
Published in the Ladies Home Companion, July 1943.
I have yet to have a feeling which approaches in satisfaction that of having signed, sealed and delivered an airplane for the United States Army. The attitude that most non flyers have about pilots is distressing and often acutely embarrassing. They chatter about the glamour of flying. Well, any pilot can tell you how glamorous it is. We get up in the cold dark in order to get to the airport by daylight. We wear heavy cumbersome flying clothes and a thirty-pound parachute. You are either cold or hot. If you are female your lipstick wears off and your hair gets straighter and straighter. You look forward all afternoon to the bath you will have and the steak. Well, we get the bath but seldom the steak. Sometimes we are too tired to eat and fall wearily into bed.
Because there were and are so many disbelievers in women pilots, especially in their place in the army, officials wanted the best possible qualifications...We had to deliver the goods or else. Or else there wouldn't ever be another chance for women pilots in any part of the service.
Because of our uniforms which we had earned, we were marching with the men, marching with all the freedom-loving people in the world.
I, for one, am profoundly grateful that my one talent, my only knowledge, flying, happens to be of use to my country when it is needed. That's all the luck I ever hope to have.
Cornelia Fort artifacts are from the Nashville Library’s archives.