While Rosie the Riveter is a vivid symbol of World War II, emphasizing the vital role women played in the workplace during the war, an "Airplane Annie" tag was never developed that might have fit Ann Baumgartner, the American aviator who became the first woman to fly a jet aircraft as a test pilot during WWII.
As a member of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program, Baumgartner was one of 1,000 women who contributed to the war effort by ferrying planes into position for deployment overseas.
She's just one of the female soldiers Lena Andrews writes about in her book, "Valiant Women," chronicling some of the many contributions made by women in the 1940s war effort.
"The military women of WWII brought the woman's movement into the modern era," noted Andrews who outlined some of the challenges women confronted to serve their country in wartime.
The WASP program was discontinued in 1944 when the women who served were accused of being job-stealers and "unqualified seductresses," stated Andrews. It took more than 30 years before the U.S. Air Force finally recognized the women's contributions, granting them full veterans' benefits, she said.
Another forgotten female who served her country during the war will soon be the subject of a Netflix film production from Tyler Perry, said Andrews, referring to Charity Adams who led the 6888th Central Postal Battalion (known as the Six Triple Eight), the Army’s only all-women unit that served overseas in WWII.
Adams headed the battalion, made up largely of African American women, that cleared a backlog of more than 2 million letters and packages intended for the soldiers who were serving on European front lines.
"Everyone knows how important the mail was for the morale of soldiers during the war where letters were often read out loud," Andrews told Steve Tarter.
Women served in all phases in WWII, she said, from dealing with all the paperwork created with millions in world-wide service to planning functions such as analyzing ocean tides and currents to establish the best landing areas for troops deployed to Pacific islands controlled by the Japanese.
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