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Clipped Wings - The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II (Hardcover, New)
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Clipped Wings - The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II (Hardcover, New)
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Revives the overlooked stories of pioneering women aviators, who
are also featured in the forthcoming documentary film Coming Home:
Fight for a Legacy During World War II, all branches of the
military had women's auxiliaries. Only the Women Airforce Service
Pilots (WASP) program, however, was made up entirely of women who
undertook dangerous missions more commonly associated with and
desired by men. Within military hierarchies, the World War II pilot
was perceived as the most dashing and desirable of servicemen.
"Flyboys" were the daring elite of the United States military. More
than the WACs (Army), WAVES (Navy), SPARS (Coast Guard), or Women
Marines, the WASPs directly challenged these assumptions of male
supremacy in wartime culture. WASPs flew the fastest fighter planes
and heaviest bombers; they test-piloted experimental models and
worked in the development of weapons systems. Yet the WASPs were
the only women's auxiliary within the armed services of World War
II that was not militarized. In Clipped Wings, Molly Merryman draws
upon military documents-many of which weren't declassified until
the 1990s-congressional records, and interviews with the women who
served as WASPs during World War II to trace the history of the
over one thousand pilots who served their country as the first
women to fly military planes. She examines the social pressures
that culminated in their disbandment in 1944-even though a wartime
need for their services still existed-and documents their struggles
and eventual success, in 1977, to gain military status and receive
veterans' benefits. In the preface to this reissued edition,
Merryman reflects on the changes in women's aviation in the past
twenty years, as NASA's new Artemis program promises to land the
first female astronaut on the moon and African American and lesbian
women are among the newest pilot recruits. Updating the story of
the WASPs, Merryman reveals that even in the past few years there
have been more battles for them to fight and more national
recognition for them to receive. At its heart, the story of the
Women Airforce Service Pilots is not about war or planes; it is a
story about persistence and extraordinary achievement. These
accomplished women pilots did more than break the barriers of
flight; they established a model for equality.
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