VOCABULARY
• WASP: Women Air Force Service Pilots• Bonds: Debt securities issued by a government for the
purpose of financing military operations during times of war. It is an emotional appeal to patriotic citizens to lend the government their money because these bonds offer a rate of return below the market rate.
• Corps: A separate branch or department of the armed forces having a specialized function
History of the WASPs
• Jacqueline Cochrane and Nancy Love merged their existing groups of women pilots to form the WASPs.
Requirements
• 200 hours of flight instruction• 400 hours of ground school• 25,000 women applied– 1,830 were accepted– 1,074 graduated
Duties at Minter Field
• While WASPs in other parts of the country were used to transport airplanes to various bases or tow targets, the main duty for WASPs at Minter Field was to test fly the planes.
• The following pictures were taken at Minter Field.
• WASPs served just a few years, but were vital to the war effort.
• How do you think they were treated by other pilots?
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/video/index.htm
BIBLIOGRAPHY• Cayton, Andrew, et al, America: Pathways to the Present (Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education, 2005), 827, 860-61.• Minter Field Air Museum. http://www.minterfieldairmuseum.com/ Web.• “Powers of Persuasion.” National Archives.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion_intro.html Web.
• WASP on the WEB. http://wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/index.htm Web.