On The Road With Tom & Suzie: On The Road 2022, WASP Museum

As we continued westbound, we came across another interesting museum out in the middle of nowhere, at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.

During World War II, the Army had control of all aircraft except for those aircraft flown by the Navy and Marines and that Army flying unit was called the Army Airforce.

All branches of the military were recruiting as many qualified people to train as pilots as they could find to send into combat.

This left a need for support back in the U.S.

Someone was needed to move the thousands of airplanes that were being built out to the various training bases and active units and that is when Jacque Cochran, a famous woman pilot of the time suggested that women could fill that role.

The Army Airforce then established a training base at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas to give it a try.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots museum (WASP) is dedicated to the more than 1000 women who trained to fly as they assisted the home front in support of World War II.

There were no women size flight suits so the Army Airforce sent extra flight suits that they felt they could do without.

The women called the flight suits Zoot Suits. The problem was that the Air Force decided that the only flight suits they could do without were size 44 long.

It is unclear if the Airforce sent these as a joke or because they didn't fully support the WASP idea but the women made it work.

Over 30,000 women applied for the program but only slightly more than 1,000 made it through the rigorous weeding out process and tough physical and mental training involved.

The women were also trained in the maintenance of the aircraft because there was always the possibility of a breakdown while en-route their destination and they needed to be able to diagnose problems and fix them when possible.

It turned out that when learning to fly the various aircraft, some of the more petite women couldn't reach the rudder pedals. The problem was quickly solved when they were asked, "How many cushions are you?"

Suzie needs 2 cushions to fly a BT-13.

They also had to learn Morse Code. Suzie will need a little more practice, although she learned S.O.S. quickly.

There were only 2 real airplanes at the museum.

PT-17 Kaydet

This is a picture of the WASP mascot.

Since there weren't a lot of actual artifacts to show you, here are a bunch of pictures that are pretty much self explanatory, except for this first one.