Winning My Wings: A Woman Airforce Service Pilot in World War II

One of the first women in the United States to train as a military pilot, the author was part of a little-known World War II experiment called the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program, which gave young women the then unheard-of opportunity to fly military aircraft. Marion Hodgson tells an exuberant story of the time back in 1943 when she and other WASPs earned their hard-won wings. They learned to fly everything from open-cockpit primary trainers to P-51 Mustangs, B-26 Marauders, and B-29 Superfortresses, and their stateside missions freed their male counterparts for combat duty oversees. This is an action-packed story, often humorous and sometimes harrowing, told mostly through letters Hodgson wrote to a Marine pilot fighting for his life after a fiery crash. It reveals what it was like for these pioneering women as they ferried planes from factories to airfields, test-flew repaired aircraft, and performed a variety of other duties traditionally assigned to men.

Marion Stegeman Hodgson graduated from flight school in 1943 with the 318th Army Air Force's Flying Training Detachment in Sweetwater, Texas. She is the author of one novel, four cookbooks, and numerous magazine articles.