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VIDEO: WWII’s women pilots finally honored for role
By The Associated Press
This article was published March 10, 2010 at 10:12 p.m.
They flew planes during World War II but weren’t considered “real” military pilots. No flags were draped over their coffins when they died on duty. And when their service ended, they had to pay their own bus fare home.
These aviators — all women — got long-overdue recognition Wednesday. They received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress, in a ceremony on Capitol Hill.
About 200 women who served as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, were on hand to receive the awards. Now mostly in their late 80s and early 90s, some in wheelchairs, many sported dark-blue uniforms, and one, June Bent of Westboro, Mass., clutched a framed photograph of a comrade who had died.
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