Finding Dorothy Scott: Letters of a WASP Pilot

Lubbock. 2016. May 2016. Texas Tech University Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780896729728. 6 x 9. index 36 halftones. May 2016. hardcover. keywords: Aviation Military History. DESCRIPTION - 'Why not have someone pay me for flying? I have no use for fine clothes or girl stuff - and there's lots of the world yet to see.' - Dorothy Scott. More than eleven hundred women pilots flew military aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. These pioneering female aviators were known first as WAFS (Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) and eventually as WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). Thirty-eight of them died while serving their country. Dorothy Scott was one of the thirty-eight. She died in a mid-air crash at the age of twenty-three. Born in 1920, Scott was a member of the first group of women selected to fly as ferry pilots for the Army Air Forces. Her story would have been lost had her twin brother not donated her wartime letters home to the WASP Archives. Dorothy's extraordinary voice, as heard through her lively letters, tells of her initial decision to serve, and then of her training and service, first as a part of the WAFS and then the WASP. The letters offer a window into the mind of a young, patriotic, funny, and ambitious young woman who was determined to use her piloting skills to help the US war effort. The letters also offer archival records of the day-to-day barracks life for the first women to fly military aircraft. The WASP received some long overdue recognition in 2010 when they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal - the highest honor that Congress can bestow on civilians. inventory #42928.…