The shop had an interesting visitor recently; the daughter of a WASP, who is going to museums that have aircraft in their collection which the WASP flew during their service.
During World War II, Women Airforce Service Pilots, WASP for short, ferried aircraft and performed domestic missions like towing targets on gunnery ranges, freeing up male pilots for the war effort.
The WASP were designated as civilians though supporting the war effort by directly flying aircraft. Their contributions were not recognized officially until decades later, through the efforts of supporters and their families.
While the family made a wrong turn as they were looking for the museum at the north end of the field, we were happy they stopped to share their mom’s story. While she said little of her time as a WASP she nonchalantly mentioned diving an airplane to get it to restart.
Their mission was to bring more light to the contributions of the WASP as part of the war effort with a sign created about their mother’s time.
Mom was Ruth Franckling, part of the class 43-W-2. During her time, she flew nineteen aircraft, of which the P-51 Mustang was her favorite.
Stopping at small museums, the family was making their sign available to museums and other locations with aircraft associated with the WASP. On the day they stopped by our shop, they planned on making their way up to the International Women’s Air and Space Museum at Burke Lakefront airport (KBKL) by the end of the day.
One of the daughters, author Margaret Dibenedetto, has also written about their mother’s time as a WASP as part of her book Silver Dollar Girls.
The family is involved with the National WASP WWII Museum at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX (KSWW) which was home to the WASP in training. Training aircraft and favorites of their time flying are brought to the homecoming from museums like ours in Texas.
During this year’s Girls in Aviation Day I was able to talk with Erin Miller, a granddaughter of another WASP indicating grandma mentioned flying over the Grand Canyon with prodding from an interviewer but said much less to her family.
She wrote about her grandmother’s time as a WASP in the book, What Grandma Did. After her grandmother passed away, the granddaughter made her final wish of being laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery possible, documented her efforts in, Final Flight Final Fight.
A visible representation of how far women have come because of their efforts decades before was EAA Airventure 2014. Honoring the WASP women pilots and future pilots surrounded them in the year’s photo.
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