Feb. 12 Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society program features WWII Women’s Airforce Service Pilots museum

Feb. 12 Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society program features WWII Women’s Airforce Service Pilots museum
 
The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society will hold its next meeting on Weds., Feb. 12, 2014 at 7 p.m. at the Cuyahoga Falls Library, 2015 Third St.
 
Speaker for the event will be Ray Hoffman, who will present a program about the National Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) World War II museum in Sweetwater, Texas.

Although the WASP organization is not as widely known as other WWII-related groups, its members played a vital role in the war effort. From 1942 to 1944, approximately 1,800 female civilian pilots volunteered for this experimental Army Air Corp program in which they would receive four months of military flight training and become the first women in history to fly for the U.S. Military.
 
Specifically, the WASP pilots flew military airplanes from factories to their designated bases across the U.S., thereby ensuring vital equipment was delivered and male pilots were freed for combat service overseas. In addition to ferrying planes, they flew weather flights, transported top military brass across the country, test-flew planes and even towed targets for pilot target practice.
 
In total, the WASP pilots flew more than 60 million miles in virtually every type of military aircraft that was part of the Army Air Corps. Thirty-eight members lost their lives in service to their country.
 
Although these pilots were never formally militarized during WWII, they achieved this important designation in the 1970s. A museum, honoring their accomplishments, was opened in Sweetwater, Texas in 2005. In 2009, the organization received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
 
The historical society meeting, which will be held in the Sutliff meeting room, is free and open to the public.