women in uniform

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WASP test pilots Mardo Crane and Twila Edwards report for duty in Minter Field, Calif., April 1944.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) division was first created to help free male pilots for combat roles and make qualified civilian female pilots go on missions such as ferrying aircraft from factories to military bases. In 1943, more than 25,000 women applied for WASP service, but less than 1,900 were accepted. The 1,078 pilots who earned their wings were stationed at 120 air bases across the U.S.

Thirty-eight WASP fliers died during the war, but because they were not officially in the military, they were sent home at family expense and without traditional military honors.


Pfc. Edith Macias, Marine reservist, stands at attention during a review by Maj. Gen. George Barnett in Washington, D.C., during World War I

An Army nurse tends to a wounded solider in the crowded Evacuation Hospital No. 114 in Fleury-sur-Aire, France, during World War I

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