Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 123.djvu/1978

 123STA T . 1 958PUBLIC LA W 111 –40—J UL Y 1, 2009 PublicLaw1 11 –40 111 thCongres s A n Act Toaw a rd a C o ng r es s i ona lG old M edal t ot h e W o m en A ir f or c e S er v ice P ilots (‘ ‘WASP ’ ’ ).Beit e nac te dby t h e S enate and Hous eo fR e pr esentati v es of the U nited States of Am erica in C on g ress assemb l ed ,SECTION1.F IN D IN G S. Congres s fi n d s tha t —(1) the W o m en A irfor c e S er v ice P i l ots of WW I I ,k no w n as the ‘ ‘WASP ’ ’, were the first women in histor y to fly American military aircraft ( 2 ) more than 60 years ago, they flew fighter, b omber, trans p ort, and training aircraft in defense of America’s freedom; ( 3 ) they faced overwhelming c u ltural and gender bias against women in nontraditional roles and overcame multiple in j ustices and ine q uities in order to serve their country; ( 4 ) through their actions, the WASP eventually were the catalyst for revolutionary reform in the integration of women pilots into the Armed Services; ( 5 ) during the early months of World War II, there was a severe shortage of combat pilots; (6) J acqueline Cochran, America’s leading woman pilot of the time, convinced G eneral H ap Arnold, Chief of the Army Air F orces, that women, if given the same training as men, would be equally capable of flying military aircraft and could then take over some of the stateside military flying jobs, thereby releasing hundreds of male pilots for combat duty; ( 7 ) the severe loss of male combat pilots made the necessity of utili z ing women pilots to help in the war effort clear to General Arnold, and a women’s pilot training program was soon approved; ( 8 ) it was not until August 1 9 43, that the women aviators would receive their official name; (9) General Arnold ordered that all women pilots flying military aircraft, including 28 civilian women ferry pilots, would be named ‘‘WASP’’, Women Airforce Service Pilots; (10) more than 25,000 American women applied for training, but only 1,830 were accepted and took the oath; (11) e x actly 1,074 of those trainees successfully completed the 21 to 27 weeks of Army Air Forces flight training, grad - uated, and received their Army Air Forces orders to report to their assigned air base; (12) on N ovember 16, 1942, the first class of 29 women pilots reported to the Houston, T exas M unicipal Airport and 31USC5 111 note.July 1 ,20 0 9[ S. 6 1 4]