The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II embodied patriotism, courage, and the determination to serve, yet their groundbreaking contributions remain unfamiliar to many Americans. Formed in 1942 during a critical shortage of combat pilots, the WASP program emerged after pilot Jacqueline Cochran convinced General Hap Arnold that women could safely fly military aircraft within the United States. After paying their own way and completing rigorous Army Air Forces training, 1,074 women earned their wings and served at 120 bases across the country.
Over the next 26 months, these pilots flew more than 60 million miles in every type of military aircraft and took on dangerous assignments such as test flights, target towing, and critical transport missions that sometimes included carrying parts for the atomic bomb. Despite their service, the WASP were abruptly disbanded in December 1944 and their records were sealed for decades. They were finally granted veteran status in 1977 and received their service medals seven years later. These honors arrived too late for the 38 WASPs who died in service.
One of these trailblazers was Waco resident Deanie Bishop Parrish, who trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, and flew challenging aircraft like the B-26 Widowmaker. Though proud of her service, she never flew again after the WASP were dismissed. Her daughter, Nancy Parrish, only later discovered the depth of her mother’s story. While producing a 1996 PBS documentary, she realized how little historical information existed about the WASP, which sparked a lifelong mission to preserve their legacy.
That mission grew into WASP on the Web and later Wings Across America, a nonprofit digital history project dedicated to documenting WASP stories and inspiring future generations. With support from Baylor University, especially the late President Herbert H. Reynolds and Baylor’s Film and Digital Media Division, the project established a home on campus in 1998. Over the life of the project, Wings Across America recorded interviews with over 100 WASPs.
Nancy Parrish recalls being deeply moved by their stories, including that of Baylor alumna Ruth Daily Helm, the project’s first interview, whose courage and character extended far beyond the cockpit. Through the Deanie and Nancy’s work, the extraordinary history of the WASPs. continues to gain the recognition long denied to them.
In 2024, the Wings Across America interviews became part of the permanent collections of the Institute for Oral History. Digitization work on these interviews is currently in progress, with batches of material uploaded to this digital collection upon completion of initial processing. The videos are edited and described for online access, which includes transcription and captioning text provided by OpenAI’s Whisper. While highly accurate, some of this text may include errors, especially when proper nouns are involved. In the coming years, research-ready interview transcripts produced by the Institute for Oral History will be added to the collection as well.
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II embodied patriotism, courage, and the determination to serve, yet their groundbreaking contributions remain unfamiliar to many Americans. Formed in 1942 during a critical shortage of combat pilots, the WASP program emerged after pilot Jacqueline Cochran convinced General Hap Arnold that women could safely fly military aircraft within the United States. After paying their own way and completing rigorous Army Air Forces training, 1,074 women earned their wings and served at 120 bases across the country.
Over the next 26 months, these pilots flew more than 60 million miles in every type of military aircraft and took on dangerous assignments such as test flights, target towing, and critical transport missions that sometimes included carrying parts for the atomic bomb. Despite their service, the WASP were abruptly disbanded in December 1944 and their records were sealed for decades. They were finally granted veteran status in 1977 and received their service medals seven years later. These honors arrived too late for the 38 WASPs who died in service.
One of these trailblazers was Waco resident Deanie Bishop Parrish, who trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, and flew challenging aircraft like the B-26 Widowmaker. Though proud of her service, she never flew again after the WASP were dismissed. Her daughter, Nancy Parrish, only later discovered the depth of her mother’s story. While producing a 1996 PBS documentary, she realized how little historical information existed about the WASP, which sparked a lifelong mission to preserve their legacy.
That mission grew into WASP on the Web and later Wings Across America, a nonprofit digital history project dedicated to documenting WASP stories and inspiring future generations. With support from Baylor University, especially the late President Herbert H. Reynolds and Baylor’s Film and Digital Media Division, the project established a home on campus in 1998. Over the life of the project, Wings Across America recorded interviews with over 100 WASPs.
Nancy Parrish recalls being deeply moved by their stories, including that of Baylor alumna Ruth Daily Helm, the project’s first interview, whose courage and character extended far beyond the cockpit. Through the Deanie and Nancy’s work, the extraordinary history of the WASPs. continues to gain the recognition long denied to them.
In 2024, the Wings Across America interviews became part of the permanent collections of the Institute for Oral History. Digitization work on these interviews is currently in progress, with batches of material uploaded to this digital collection upon completion of initial processing. The videos are edited and described for online access, which includes transcription and captioning text provided by OpenAI’s Whisper. While highly accurate, some of this text may include errors, especially when proper nouns are involved. In the coming years, research-ready interview transcripts produced by the Institute for Oral History will be added to the collection as well.
User Notes :
User Notes :
Using This Resource In Your Research?
Scholars are welcome to use our interviews under the Fair Use doctrine of the US copyright statute. If you have questions about whether your intended use qualifies as “fair use,” please contact us at BUIOH@baylor.edu. Also, please let us know if you are using our interviews in scholarly work, as we like to keep track of this data and promote the use of our collection.
When citing our interviews, we recommend following The Chicago Manual of Style’s guidelines for “unpublished interviews,” such as in this example:
- Noah Jackson Jr., interview by Mark Firmin, May 28, 2009, transcript, Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX, https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/oral-memoirs-of-noah-jackson-jr.-series-1-transcript/2066141.
- Noah Jackson Jr., interview by Mark Firmin, May 28, 2009, audio, Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX, https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/documents/detail/2066108.
Using This Resource In Your Research?
Scholars are welcome to use our interviews under the Fair Use doctrine of the US copyright statute. If you have questions about whether your intended use qualifies as “fair use,” please contact us at BUIOH@baylor.edu. Also, please let us know if you are using our interviews in scholarly work, as we like to keep track of this data and promote the use of our collection.
When citing our interviews, we recommend following The Chicago Manual of Style’s guidelines for “unpublished interviews,” such as in this example:
- Noah Jackson Jr., interview by Mark Firmin, May 28, 2009, transcript, Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX, https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/oral-memoirs-of-noah-jackson-jr.-series-1-transcript/2066141.
- Noah Jackson Jr., interview by Mark Firmin, May 28, 2009, audio, Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX, https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/documents/detail/2066108.