Thursday, October 23, 2008

I think I need to clarify since there apparently

was some misunderstanding. The 84 year old former WASP was a Women Airforce Service Pilot in WWII - not a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (although she may still be that as well.) She flew open cockpit planes towing targets so male gunners on the ground could practice. There were 25,000 women that tried for the job: less than 1100 got their wings and less than 250 are still alive. These women broke ground: they taught the male pilots so they could go overseas and paved the way for today's 4,000 female commercial pilots. It was a fabulous interview but hard to picture the sweet little old lady I was talking to as a hardened war veteran...some days I really love my job.

1 comment:

Dawn Fortune said...

Ah.

OK.

That makes SO much more sense.

Cool for you!