As one of them remarked, "it's about time." Indeed.
Now, more than six decades later, the women are being recognized with a Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation’s highest honors for civilians. President Obama signed a bill July 1 granting them the same honor bestowed on such other boundary-pushers as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the Tuskegee Airmen.
They were the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, and there were about 1,000 of them who volunteered to fly dangerous fighter, bomber, transport, and training aircraft in the United States in order to free up male pilots for combat duty overseas. Thirty-eight of the women were killed, either as trainees or in active service. Only 300 of the WASP are still alive; the youngest is 85.
