The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II

Great read of the forgotten women of WW II.

Very detailed. Too detailed at times and yet missing some of more human interest.

Read this book with some ladies for our feminist book club. I love history and this book was stuff full of crazy and unbelievably unique stories. I was shocked that I had never heard of any of this before. It is an inspiring and frustrating record of women who wanted to use their passion for flight to serve their nation in desperate times. They are involved with WWII so be prepared for the attitudes of the time to be grating and riddled with chauvinism. It was a truly fascinating read and well worth the time, i am still blown away that I had never before heard of the WASP!

It saddens me that as a retired, female Naval Officer and instrument rated private pilot I knew so very little about the WASPs. This book is well researched and written with great passion. It is a great read for anyone with an interest in woman who served their country during WWII and/or in aviation history. Most importantly this book shines a spotlight on these female aviators who were truly fearless and honorable! Thank you for writing this book!

While touring Pensacola Air Base and seeing the Blue Angels fly during a vacation, I found this book in the gift shop and was intrigued. When I returned home, I bought it again on Kindle and have so enjoyed reading about these first Women military pilots. My maiden name is Dougherty and I plan on doing some research to see if I could be related to Dora Dougherty, who is written about in this book. An easy and interesting read, unlike some history books. I will be forever grateful for all the work these women accomplished.

As a WAC serving as a direct commissioned officer from 1974-1980, I found this book tremendously inspiring. A well researched and detailed history that needed to be told. The author has completed a work that will resonate with all women who have served in the military. The trials, obstacles, and heartaches the WASP’s had to overcome, as trailblazers, to bring about opportunities for the women who followed were amazing. The sadness of their disbandment and their continued struggles and attempts to “find their way” and belonging, amongst their brothers who served, still challenges female soldiers today. You can not help being touched by their passion and desires to serve their country and the sisterhood they maintained to win their rightful place in history. Thank you Dr. Landdeck for giving us this amazing history of such a hard fought journey for our female soldiers. To the WASP’s we will forever be grateful for your pioneering volunteerism and service. Camilla Zimbal 1st Lieutenant U.S. Army

Women pilots were a great help to the Air Force during World War II doing things such as ferrying planes from factories to various bases that needed the planes to send them overseas and doing testing of planes when others were too scared or unavailable due to manpower shortages. This book is the very well told story of the women who flew and who trained them to fly. It is also the story of their desperation to become officially part of the Army Air Force following their service and their desire to be recognized as officers in the Air Corps. This book brought back a lot of memories. My father was originally trained at Sweetwater, Texas, where the women needed were trained to fly. Although he didn't make it as a pilot due to issues beyond his control, he moved from Sweetwater to Big Spring, Texas where he trained to become a bombardier. Since the 2 bases were close, it is inevitable that he met the female pilots and very well may have socialized (at a minimum, knowing my father). This book uncovers a small, but very important part of the Army Air Corps that helped the United States end the wars in the Pacific and Europe. A very good read, and one I highly recommend!

This story of the women who volunteered to ferry airpanes for the military during WW II is well researched and exclelent reading. They proved women can so anything a man can do in a society that thought they should stay home and in the kitchen. These unsung heroes deerved so much more than they ever received.

I’m grateful that this book exists. It’s the work of a historian who spent about 20 years collecting oral histories and archives on the WASP, Women Airforce Service Pilots. The WASP were the first American women to fly for the US military. They were supposed to be civilian volunteering to “release” men from jobs on home soil, yet in practice were treated like military personal. They have continuously been denied recognition for their service during WWII on a technicality, and therefore did not get the privileges and benefits attached to it. While the writing is sometimes repetitive and often gossipy -which can be explained by the reliance of the author on oral histories- the thrilling story of the WASP truly deserves to be told and more people should know about it. My one negative criticism of the book, besides the writing style, is that it made it painfully obvious that the author is white and tells history from her white perspective. She goes so far as to describe white as “the right skin colour”, without quotation marks. She brushed over the fact that black women were actively discouraged from applying to the WASP training program. There is only about two pages of the entire book dedicated to women of color, despite several women of Asian descent flying for the WASP, including at least one who lost her life during her service.

This is the story of the infighting among the members of the WASPS.It says very little about what they actually did in WW2

Good Read I enjoyed the story although I already knew most of it.