Women Airforce Service Pilots
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Search complete. 10 mentions across 2 episodes found for "Women Airforce Service Pilots".
Sep 9, 2026
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In August of 1943, two separate women's flying programs merged into one.
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They became the Women Air Force Service Pilots, the WASPs.
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Cochrane ran the program out of Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.
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Sweetwater in the summer is honest about what it is.
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The legs flopped around, unless you stuffed them with newspapers to fill out the extra room.
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They called those suits their Zoot Suits and wore them with a defiant, laughing pride that became a signature of the whole program.
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1,074 women earned their wings as WASPs.
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They flew over 60 million miles.
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The result was the women Air Force service pilots.
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WASP, 1,074 women served in the program before it was done.
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They flew every aircraft in the Army Air Force's inventory.
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B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-29 Superfortresses, P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs, C-47 Transports, and AT-6 Trainers.
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and they flew tow target missions.
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That is what it sounds like.
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A WASP pilot would fly at low altitude, towing a target banner behind the aircraft, while anti-aircraft gunners on the ground trained their weapons on it and fired live ammunition at a banner being towed by a piloted aircraft.
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The argument was that you cannot fully train a gunner without real speed and real movement in the target.