AMY NATHAN's Web Site WELCOME!

WASP Lillian Yonally (far R) with a troop of wonderful Girl Scouts and author Amy Nathan at the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, March 13, 2010 — at a book-signing for YANKEE DOODLE GALS on the museum's "Girl Scout Day" — just three days after the WASP pilots received the CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL in an amazing ceremony in the U.S. Capitol building.

No wonder there are smiles all around !

It's a book that the WASP themselves have often donated to school libraries, in an effort to help young people learn what it was like to be aviation pioneers who were definitely way ahead of their time.

In the 1940s, a group of daring young women did something women weren't expected to do back then: They flew fighter planes, bombers, and every other kind of military aircraft the Army had. They were WASPs — Women Airforce Service Pilots — the first women to fly on a wide range of missions for the United States armed forces.

Some were teenagers, right out of high school or just starting college. Others were teachers, librarians, flight instructors, or offices workers. They stopped what they were doing for the chance to fly fantastic planes and help their country win the war. These 1,102 women weren't allowed to fly in combat, but for two glorious years they put their lives on the line every day flying important, and often risky, stateside missions. They flew well and proved that a woman's place could very well be inside a military cockpit.

Then suddenly, their adventure ended. In December 1944, as the war was going better for the U.S., the Army closed down the WASPs, even though the program had been a great success. The women were heartbroken. It would be nearly 30 years before women were allowed to fly for the military again. In 1977, the WASP were finally recognized as having performed military duties during the war, but it wasn't until 2010, nearly seventy years after the program was started, that the WASP received formal, official thanks from the U.S. government for their wartime service, with the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal.

This book tells the story of these World War II pioneers, from the first squadron formed in the fall of 1942 — called WAFS — 28 highly experienced pilots who began delivering planes for the Army right away, while a training program for other female pilots started in Texas. In the summer of 1943, both groups (WAFS and the training program) combined into one unit: the WASPs.

You'll meet several of these women who were interviewed specially for this book. A Resource Guide offers tips on becoming a pilot, with suggestions from today's women pilots, including NASA astronaut Eileen Collins, who, in the Foreword, explains how grateful she is to the WASPs for helping to open the skies for women.

The new UPDATED version of the book—available for sale starting in January 2014—includes NEW photos about their crowning honor, received on March 10, 2010, the day the nation officially said "Thank you," when Congress presented the WASP pilots with the CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL, the highest honor Congress can bestow on civilians. This book was originally published in 2001, long before the Gold Medal was dreamed of, and so it is important to now update the book to include information on the Medal.

The Bibliography and Resources section have also been updated, but the rest of the book remains unchanged — still telling the WASPs' inspiring story.