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Winning My Wings: A Woman Airforce Service Pilot in World War II

One of the first women in the United States to train as a military pilot, the author was part of a little-known World War II experiment called the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program, which gave young women the then unheard-of opportunity to fly military aircraft. Marion Hodgson tells an exuberant story of the time back in 1943 when she and other WASPs earned their hard-won wings. They learned to fly everything from open-cockpit primary trainers to P-51 Mustangs, B-26 Marauders, and B-29 Superfortresses, and their stateside missions freed their male counterparts for combat duty oversees. This is an action-packed story, often humorous and sometimes harrowing, told mostly through letters Hodgson wrote to a Marine pilot fighting for his life after a fiery crash. It reveals what it was like for these pioneering women as they ferried planes from factories to airfields, test-flew repaired aircraft, and performed a variety of other duties traditionally assigned to men.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 286
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781931721479
  • Genres
  • history, aviation, womens, memoir, biography
  • Release date
  • 2005