Proud WASP Marty Wyall (front, left), Betty Jo Read, Margaret Ringenburg and Jean McCreery. Vi Cowden (back, left), Dawn Seymour, Dot Lewis Swain, and Jan Goodrum. Photo by Phil Weston

Jean McCreery graduated from the last Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) class, and had only 10 days of military experience before the program was canceled. But, like all the other women who accepted America’s call to service during World War II, she has stories to tell.

And the WASP are doing just that this week.

"In training they had showed us a parachute and showed us how to jump off from a platform, but we all wondered if we’d have the nerve to do that," McCreery recalled. "Then one day I was up flying and suddenly fire was all around the cowling. I was already standing on my seat ready to jump when I looked down and saw houses below. I couldn’t just let the plane crash there.

"So I popped the stick—I don’t know why—and somehow the action put the fire out," she recalled. "I went back to the field and landed, and I didn’t tell anybody what had happened. As a 19-year-old, I thought they would blame me. I have no idea if anyone ever took up that plane again."

Jan Goodrun tested twin-engine planes that had crashed or had been overhauled. She wore "zoot suits" that were made for male mechanics.

"I wrapped the belt around several times, and there were yards of extra fabric," she recalled. "Plus I had to roll up the sleeves and legs, too."

She remembered one flight that went well until she was ready to land. As she went down to land, she looked up just in time to see a cadet flying a plane coming down on top of her. She got out of the way in time and followed her husband’s advice after that: Don’t fly when the cadets are practicing.

With a severe shortage of male pilots in 1942, American pilot Jacqueline Cochran convinced military officials she could bring together women pilots and train them to fly the "Army way" and thus free up America’s male pilots for overseas combat. Nearly 25,000 women volunteered for the job, yet only 1,830 were accepted, and of that only 1,078 graduated and went on to become a member of WASP, most training at Avenger Field near Sweetwater, Texas.

WASP flew 44 different airplane types in all kinds of weather conditions. They ferried personnel and hauled cargo, they delivered aircraft from factories to bases and elsewhere, and they test-flew new, old, and rebuilt planes…and even some planes that male pilots refused to fly. They towed targets for ground-to-air and air-to-air gunnery practice, and they delivered old planes to America’s junkyards. Simply put, they flew every type of mission the Air Force had except combat.

They flew more than 60 million miles for their country in less than two years, and then, in December 1944, the WASP were disbanded. The women were told to pack their bags and go home.

Most did just that and continued their lives. Goodrun went back to teaching. McCreery got married, had 10 children, "and spent the next 20 years tied to the stove."

But some, like Margaret Ringenberg, kept flying. At 86, she took fifth in the Air Race Class this June. And she still is a flight instructor.

The group clearly cherishes the times they spent together then and now.

"This group of women have more nerve and chutzpah than anyone else I have ever met," McCreery says. "They will do anything for each other; they are the sisters I never had."

Where they are?

The WASP are located in the U.S. Air Force Pavilion daily during convention. They are also participating in a 1 p.m. forum today at the Vette Theater in the EAA AirVenture Museum.