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Archive for October, 2021
Beverly Beesemyer
“We were given the opportunity to fly wonderful aircraft that women hadn’t flown. We were the experimental thing.” – Beverly Beesemyer (1918 – 2019) When World War II broke out Beesemyer sought a way to join the war effort. It was in 1943, when she learned about a little-known opportunity […]
Ann Baumgartner Carl
Ann Baumgartner Carl learned to fly in 1940 and entered Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) training during World War II. She was assigned to tow a target squadron at Camp Davis, North Carolina, flying Curtiss A-25s. She was transferred to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, where she became the […]
Patricia Blackburn Bonansinga
“I became interested in joining a military service available for women as World War II progressed. The only service branch which really interested me was the WASP program.” – Patricia Blackburn Bonansinga (September 10, 1921 – December 2, 2006) After taking flying lessons in Utah, Patricia earned acceptance into the […]
Colonel Jacqueline Cochran
Although she was born into impoverished circumstances in Florida in 1906, Colonel Jacqueline Cochran became one of history’s most accomplished female aviators. She learned to fly in 1932 while working as a cosmetics saleswoman. Three years later, Cochran became the first woman to fly in the Bendix Trophy Race, which […]
“Millie” Inks Davidson Dalrymple
“I was the absolutely minimum of everything that you could be to get into the WASP. I thought I could, and I applied myself and I made it. I think anybody who really wants to do something very bad, if they work at it, and they focus, and they concentrate, […]
Gertrude “Tommy” Tompkins Silver
WASP pilot Gertrude “Tommy” Tompkins Silver of the 601st Ferrying Squadron, 5th Ferrying Group, based at Love Field in Dallas. It was on this day in 1944 she departed Mines Field in Los Angeles for Palm Springs, on October 26, 1944, flying a North American P-51D Mustang destined for New Jersey. She […]
Elizabeth “Betty” Wall Strohfus
Home economics, shorthand and typing were common classes for most women in school in the 1930s, but those topics didn’t interest Elizabeth “Betty” Wall Strohfus – she had a heart for flying. She borrowed money to join a local flying club in her native Minnesota. After seeing an ad for […]
Margaret June “Peggy” Seip
Today, we honor Margaret June “Peggy” Seip, Class 43-W-5. Seip was among the 38 WASPs killed in plane crashes. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Seip earned her private pilot license in 1940 and was one of the first women to join the Wisconsin CAP. She went on to be a Link […]
Ethel Meyer Finley
“I loved sitting under the wing of a plane hot as it was with the black top of the ramp sticky, waiting for my turn to fly.” Born in 1921 in Lake City, MN, Ethel Meyer Finley started out as a school teacher but quickly learned she could not earn […]