The Women with Silver Wings

Chapter One

Airminded

Only a few short weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Teresa James stood on the freezing platform of Pittsburgh s Union Station saying goodbye to the love of her life. They were an attractive couple: Teresa a pretty, curly-haired brunette with brown eyes and a ready smile, and George who went by Dink looking so handsome and clean-cut in his new uniform, with his cropped hair and square jaw. The couple had been preparing for this moment ever since America s entry into the war, but even so, they hated that the time for goodbye had come so soon.

Both Teresa and Dink had spent years anxiously following the news, waiting for the moment when their country might finally join the fight. They were children of European immigrants Teresa s mother was from Ireland and Dink s was from Hungary and perhaps, as a result, they took events overseas personally. Dink was a well-qualified pilot with 2,100 hours of flying time, and the Army s Air Transport Command wanted him to join their Ferrying Division. But by the time the telegram from the Ferrying Division arrived, he had already gone with a friend and enlisted. He was now Private Martin, headed to training at Keesler Army Airfield in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Seasoned pilots like Dink were in high demand in January 1942. A sleeping nation had finally woken up to the fact that America was woefully underprepared for war. In the weeks that followed Pearl Harbor, the nation s military began a fevered rush to train and recruit new personnel, especially pilots. It was clear that this new conflict was going to be fought, and won, in the air. In the years since the end of World War I, advancing airplane technology had transformed the nature of armed conflict, with newly developed combat aircraft enabling both sides to enact swift and deadly violence. In particular, the might of the German air force the infamous Luftwaffe drew the awe and respect of all who knew airplanes. In order to counter it, the

Katherine Sharp Landdeck is an associate 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 and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where she earned her Ph.D., Landdeck has received numerous awards for her work on the WASP and has appeared as an expert on NPR s Morning Edition, PBS, and the History channel. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and HuffPost, as well as in numerous academic and aviation publications. Landdeck is a licensed pilot who flies whenever she can.

Landdeck s profiles of these daring World War II heroines are so brilliantly and vividly drawn that I felt as if I working alongside them ferrying bombers, towing flying shooting targets (a potentially deadly exercise), and piloting difficult aircraft that the men were too terrified to attempt. The Women with Silver Wings is not just an important slice of history, it s a thrilling page-turner that explores the patriotism, sexism, and camaraderie of the WASPs world. Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Ghosts of Eden Park
 
Historian Katherine Sharp Landdeck s highflying debut The Women with Silver Wings chronicles a cadre of fearless women whose wartime sacrifices were nearly forgotten. . . . [This is] a powerful story of reinvention, community and ingenuity born out of global upheaval. Newsday

The Women with Silver Wings starts with a dramatic takeoff, introducing a personal story that author Katherine Sharp Landdeck, also a pilot, uses effectively to historicize a little-known, important part of U.S. military aviation. . . . The book is a prime opportunity to admire women in service. San Francisco Chronicle

An astounding, definitive history of the [WASP]. Daily Mail

The Women With Silver Wings is the true story of America s unsung heroines of World War II. Katherine Sharp Landdeck has written a beautifully researched tribute to the courageous women who bravely served their nation in a time of need. Fannie Flagg, New York Times bestselling author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café and The All-Girl Filling Station s Last Reunion
  
With meticulous research and breathless pacing, The Women With Silver Wings will make you soar with pride at the daring and commitment of America s first women military pilots and cheer for the men who backed them to the end.