In elementary school, I once did a report on Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, as they are often known. These were the 1,074 women who became the first to fly aircraft for the U.S. military during World War II. They were non-combat, so only flew in the continental US and Canada, and mostly ferried planes to different locations. I always found their story fascinating, and today I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet a few of them! The occasion was the Dole Leadership Prize ($25,000) from the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas being awarded to Texas Woman's University to enhance the WASP National Archives, which are located on the campus and partially available online to the public.
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| "Bee" Falk Haydu |
I drove out to New Century Air Center, in New Century, Kansas, which is just southwest of Kansas City, and met up with a few other museum studies graduate students. Near one hangar, we watched while many old and brightly-colored planes flew in and landed, or chose not to land and instead show off for the crowd, and that was exciting to see too. It was only after the final planes landed that I realized some of those flashy pilots were actually the WASP ladies! There were ten in all, and three of them held a stage interview and question and answer session. There were lots of great stories, my favorite being how when one of the women had her physical before entering flight school, the doctor promised her when she got out of the service, she would never be able to have children. She went on to have TEN (two of which were in the audience). We heard stories about how one girl "accidentally fell out" of the bomb bay, but was able to pull her parachute in time, and the reason why one of the women decided to become a pilot was after taking a $5 ride in a daredevil plane with her grandmother when she was a young girl in the 1930's. It was great to hear all these stories, and the museum advocate in me is equally glad there is funding going toward preserving these stories and making them available for everyone else!
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| One of the other ladies (up front) |
