Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII to be honored; ties to Asheville

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Tribtoday.com has a story about a significant ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, a ceremony with at least one Asheville tie.

On Wednesday, the women who served in the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II, known as WASP, will be award the Congressional Medal of Honor Congressional Gold Medal (most of them posthumously). NPR has a nice story today on the big event.

The Tribtoday.com story focuses on a woman named Marie Marsh, who was trained as a WASP and stationed for a bit in Asheville.

From the story:

The Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII, known as the ”WASP,” were the first women to fly American military aircraft and were the catalyst that allowed for the integration of women pilots into the armed services. Because there was a shortage of combat pilots during the early months of the war, WASPs took over some of the stateside military flying jobs to free up hundreds of male pilots for combat duty.

According to the legislation authorizing the Congressional Gold Medal signed by President Barack Obama in July, the women flew fighter, bomber, transport and training aircraft. More than 25,000 American women applied for training, but only 1,830 were accepted and took the oath, while 1,074 of them successfully completed the six-month Air Force training.

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Marsh was one of seven women in the country to complete the advanced Civilian Pilot Training Program before World War II. She was assigned to the Weather Wing headquarters of the U.S. Army Air Force in Asheville, N.C., and provided courier service to the Pentagon and flight tested aircraft.

So, does anyone know of any women from Asheville who were trained as WASP? Does anyone know the history of women serving in the weather wing of the U.S. Army Air Force in Asheville? Sounds like it would make a great story.