Women Airforce Service Pilots

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)

The WASP badge
Elizabeth L. Gardner, WASP member, at the controls of a B-26 Marauder
Agency overview
Formed	August 5, 1943 (1943-08-05)
Preceding agencies	Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), formed September 1942 Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), formed September 1942
Dissolved	December 20, 1944
Employees	1,830 accepted for training 1,074 completed training
Parent agency	United States Army Air Forces

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots^[1] or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization.

Their members were United States federal civil service employees.

Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft and trained other pilots. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II. The WASP and its members had no military standing.

References

1. "Cornwall Postmaster Ferried Warplanes in World War II," The Evening News, Oct 8, 1971, page 3a; "Women Pilots May Become Members of the Army Air Forces," The Reading Eagle, Nov. 1, 1943, page 20; "Veterans Begin Aid Fight," The Age, May 25, 1977, page 20; "Veterans Bill Advances," St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 4, 1977, page 3A; "Women in the military," Sarasota Harold Tribune, May 26, 1995, 5B; "Sunday's the Day for Washington Gals To Fly Somewhere for Breakfast," The Evening Independent, Jul. 31, 1947, page 6; "War Prisoner's Wife Enters Flying Group," Prescott Evening Courier, Jun, 16, 1944, page 8; and "Early Decision Pilots Her Through Life," Toledo Blade, Jan.10, 1975, page 10.