Sally Van Wagenen Keil

Between 1942 and 1944, nearly two thousand women joined the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, flying cargo planes, bombers, and fighters in some of the war's most dangerous missions.
comprehensive account of the WAFS and WASPs service during WWII that I've read. This book does an excellent job of detailing the overall framework of their history from idea to formation to operational status to abrupt end to belated recognition, and this wider picture is where it shines the most. However, interwoven throughout are different stories, backgrounds, and experiences of individual pilots. That fluid combination is what makes this book great. This book does justice to those organizations and the courageous women that are among its ranks. Highly recommended. Includes a brief history of aviation (Wright brothers) and of women in aviation, then continues with a more or less chronological account of women pilots' contributions in WWII, and end with the legislation in the 1970s that finally granted them veterans status.… (mehr)