Women in the Air Force; WASPS Unit Formed
The WASPS (Women Airforce Service Pilots) was formed through a merger of pre-existing units of women pilots during World War II. WASP pilots flew non-combat missions and thereby freed male pilots for combat duty. About 25,000 women applied to be WASPS and 1,074 were finally accepted for duty.
They were considered civilian employees, however, and therefore denied veterans benefits. The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of June 12, 1948 allowed women to become permanent members of the armed forces.
After a decades-long campaign, they were retroactively classified as veterans in the 1977 GI Bill Improvement Act (see November 23, 1977). The Pentagon finally allowed women to serve in combat positions on January 24, 2013.
See July 19, 1943 issue of Life magazine: http://books.google.com/books?id=MVAEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Visit the WASP Museum: http://waspmuseum.org/
Learn more: Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel Greenlee, A Few Good Women: America’s Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (2010)
And more about women in the military: http://www.military.com/topics/women-in-the-military