WASP Museum Honors Brave Female Pilots at Homecoming & Fly-in

WASP Museum at Avenger FieldPhoto byImage from Wikimedia free media repository

If you haven't heard, WASP stands for Women Airforce Service Pilots. Brave women gathered together from all over the United States in Sweetwater, Texas to train on many different kinds of airplanes.

They had to be selected out of thousands who applied and around 1200-1400 women were accepted into the program.

Some died during their war efforts but they have not been forgotten! Flying planes to different air bases was not always an easy task, as many of the women were so small they had to sit on pillows to reach the equipment on the plane!

Ms Cochran - a WASPPhoto byImage from Flickr

Each year the WASP museum in Sweetwater, Texas has a homecoming where WASP families and the public can attend the celebration. One of the highlights of the day is the airshow of some of the WW II airplanes.

Two of the ladies that flew these planes are being honored, but will be unable to attend. Nell Bright and Shirley Kruse love sharing the WASP story as often as they can because what they did is a part of history.

Some of the women were already crop-dusters or barnstormers, but the rest had to learn how to fly, and fly several types of planes. It was in 1942 that General Henry “Hap” Arnold was in desperate need of pilots and women got the break to help win the war.

One of the planes the women flewPhoto byImage from Wikimedia free media repository

You can read their stories by visiting the website, and you can also come by the museum anytime before the Homecoming Celebration & Fly-in.

This year the Homecoming is April 26-27 at Avenger field in Sweetwater, Texas. Join in and celebrate Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and learn how these women helped change the world!