I love her.

womenatwar:

demons:

Lillian Yonally (above) was a WASP – a Women Airforce Service Pilot. During WWII, the 1,100 WASPs flew military aircraft on training flights in the USA to train volunteer male pilots for combat missions.

Only 17 when the war broke out, Lillian trained at the Sweetwater Army Field in Texas flying B25 bombers. She served in the seventh class of the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) in which women pilots led training exercises for male pilots including aircraft tracking both during the night and at high altitude, along with acting as targets for combat training.

The WFTD women flew over the Mojave Desert towing large, colored nylon sleeves 30 feet behind them that were designed to catch bullets fired by trainees. By the time the WASPS were disbanded, on Wednesday December 20th 1944, 38 women had been killed in action.

The WASPS were not recognized as war veterans until 1977.