Lessons in Perseverance from WASPS in WWII | Talk & Book Signing

Join us for a talk and book signing with local scholar Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck at Irving Archives & Museum on August 4th at 2pm!

The Women Airforce Service Pilots served with the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and then were promptly forgotten. The over 1,100 women fought for the chance to serve their country and went on to fly every plane the USAAF had. They ferried planes straight from the factory floor to the coasts so they could be shipped to the men overseas, test flew aircraft that had been repaired, and towed targets behind their planes to train ground gunners – who always used live ammunition- and any other domestic flying job that the USAAF needed done. Their work was heralded as vital to the war effort. Then in December 1944 they were sent home. There were enough men available to do their jobs, and the women, including the thirty-eight who died flying for their country, were quickly forgotten. The story of their fight to serve, to fly, and to be remembered, offer lessons in perseverance that continue to inspire.

Author of The Women With Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II, Katherine Sharp Landdeck is a Professor of History at Texas Woman’s University, the home of the WASP archives. A Guggenheim Fellow at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, a Normandy Scholar, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where she earned her PhD, Landdeck has studied the WASP for over two decades. She is a producer and consultant on several Emmy Award-winning documentaries and has appeared as an expert on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” PBS, the History Channel, and the television series "Mysteries of the Abandoned." Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Time, as well as in numerous academic and aviation publications. Landdeck is a licensed pilot who flies whenever she can.

This is FREE event. Copies of Landdeck's book, The Women With Silver Wings, will be available for purchase from the Irving Archives & Museum gift shop. Registration encouraged, but not required.

Host or Publisher Irving Archives & Museum