The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II

About this book

With the fate of the free world hanging in the balance women pilots went aloft to serve their nation. . . . A soaring tale in which at long last these daring World War II pilots gain the credit they deserve.Liza Mundy New York Times bestselling author of Code Girls A powerful story of reinvention community and ingenuity born out of global upheaval.Newsday When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941 Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two Fort had escaped Nashvilles debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of their lesson when the bombs began to fall and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still when the U.S. Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort Fort was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1 100 women from across the nation to make it through the Armys rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings. The brainchild of trailblazing pilots Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) gave women like Fort a chance to serve their countryand to prove that women aviators were just as skilled as men. While not authorized to serve in combat the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight WASP would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses Love and Cochrans social experiment seemed to be a resounding successuntil with the tides of war turning Congress clipped the womens wings. The program was disbanded the women sent home. But the bonds theyd forged never failed and over the next few decades they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they wereand for their place in history.