2010-03-13 CNN
WHITFIELD: Finally getting their due. Some of the forgotten heroes of World War II are being honored today in Washington. We're talking about the WASPs. CNN's Jessica Yellin explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): From the time she was eight, Jane Tedeschi wanted to be a pilot.
JANE TEDESCHI, FORMER PILOT: That was Lindberg flying across the Atlantic and a lot of other people were flying air races.
YELLIN: As a young woman in her 20s, Tedeschi sought out flight lessons and got her pilot's license, a rarity for a woman in those days. With World War II gripping the nation, male pilots were desperately needed overseas for battle. Female aviator, Jacqueline Cochran, came up with a radical idea, let female pilots take over domestic missions. The military approved, and WASP, Women Air Service Pilots program was born.
TEDESCHI: I thought this was something I could do and love to do and will contribute to the war effort.
YELLIN: Another of the 11,002 members was Deanie Parrish. One of her jobs was to help train gunners for combat.
DEANIE PARRISH, FORMER PILOT: It was not that I was going to do any more than anybody else, because there were other females who were driving ambulances or fire trucks, working on airplanes, and I was doing the one thing that I felt I could do best.
YELLIN: The WASP were civilians, but they were the first women to fly in U.S. military planes, in all logging over 60 million miles in all types of aircraft, from heavy bombers to attack planes. TEDESCHI: Night flying occasionally was an interesting thing, because we didn't have an awful lot of training in that and you've got to be sure you never lose your horizon.
YELLIN: Although the work was confined to the home front, Air Force Major Nicole Malikowski (ph), the first female Thunderbird pilot says these women developed key tactics and training for the war.
MAJ. NICOLE MALIKOWSKI, AIR FORCE: These women did that by training the men to fly these planes so they could fly in combat. They did that by being instructor pilots, they were test pilots, they also did aerial gunnery.
TEDESCHI: It shows how happy we were to be flying.
YELLIN: Now with fewer than 300 of the pilots still alive, today the nation is recognizing their legacy.
TEDESCHI: It is an historical fact and should be recognized.