Female WWII WASP Pilot Shares Her Pioneering Story
The schoolchildren in Boyd Elementary School file in and take their seats on the auditorium floor. Many have been looking forward to meeting this special guest—they’ve been studying world history and conflict resolution.
The visitor is a pilot from World War II. Her name is Millicent Peterson Young, and she is one of the few surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
She and over 1,000 other women flew military aircraft within the US during the war—often ferrying planes from the factory to the military base, or helping out with military training.
On this day, she’s telling the schoolkids what her specific role was.
Young: “So does everyone know what a windsock is now?”
Kids: “Yeah!”
Young: “Well, I towed one of those 100 feet behind my airplane…”
She towed aerial targets behind her plane. As she told me later in an interview, the male student pilots would shoot at these targets before heading overseas to fly in combat missions....
Read entire article at KSMU (AR)
The visitor is a pilot from World War II. Her name is Millicent Peterson Young, and she is one of the few surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
She and over 1,000 other women flew military aircraft within the US during the war—often ferrying planes from the factory to the military base, or helping out with military training.
On this day, she’s telling the schoolkids what her specific role was.
Young: “So does everyone know what a windsock is now?”
Kids: “Yeah!”
Young: “Well, I towed one of those 100 feet behind my airplane…”
She towed aerial targets behind her plane. As she told me later in an interview, the male student pilots would shoot at these targets before heading overseas to fly in combat missions....