World War II Pilots Topic Of Women's History Month Event In Yardley

YARDLEY, PA —In honor of Women's History Month, a program about the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II will be featured Sunday by the Yardley Historical Association.

The “A W.A.S.P. Takes Wing” presentation will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 5, at the Old Library by Lake Afton, 46 West Afton Avenue in Yardley.

Carol Simon Levin will share the story of the W.A.S.P.s through the eyes of Ann Baumgartner Carl, the New Jersey woman who trained as a W.A.S.P. and became the only American woman to test-fly experimental planes during the war and the first American woman to fly a jet airplane, Association President Susan Taylor said.

During World War II, more than 1,000 women volunteers completed the W.A.S.P military pilot training program, enduring terrible Texas weather, snakes, scorpions, and hostile male instructors, Taylor said.

The graduates flew every kind of military aircraft, delivered more than 12,000 planes, and flew more than 60 million miles, sometimes towing targets that soldiers shot at with live ammunition.

Thirty-eight of them died serving their country. Taylor said the women were told upon their return that the men needed the jobs and they were dismissed.

Carol Simon Levin is a professional storyteller, historian, and author, who specializes in telling the stories of “fascinating women history forgot” through first-person portrayals, Taylor said.

For more information about this program or other activities of the Yardley Historical Association, call 215-208-1154, e-mail info@yardleyhistory.org, or visit www.yardleyhistory.org.