The Star on World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs
“We did maneuvers on the new planes when they first rolled them out of the factory. We made sure they worked right before they went into the war,” said Marjorie Ellfeldt Rees, 87. “We put them through loops and chandelles – that’s a steep incline and you bank it just before it stalls.”
Her hand becomes a tiny airplane, swooshing in the air.
She giggles, and for a second she is 22 again, graduating from cadet school in 1944 as one of the first women trained to fly American military aircraft.
This week, President Barack Obama signed a bill honoring Rees, of Prairie Village, and the other civilian women pilots who flew for the military between 1942 and 1944. They were known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
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