During World War II, more than one thousand
women volunteers completed the WASP military pilot training program. They
endured terrible Texas weather, snakes, spiders and scorpions, as well as the
hostility of some male instructors.Graduating WASPs piloted every kind of military aircraft, tested new and
overhauled airplanes (some with defective parts or dangerous reputations),
delivered more than 12,000 planes, and flew over 60,000,000 miles (sometimes
towing targets that soldiers shot at with live ammunition!) Thirty-eight of
them died serving their country. Then they were told that men needed their jobs
and they were dismissed and forgotten. Carol Simon Levin tells the story of the
amazing WASPsthrough the eyes of Ann
Baumgartner Carl, the Jersey girl who trained as a WASP, became the only
American woman to test-fly experimental planes during the war, and the first
American woman to fly a jet airplane!