W.A.S.P. Training Base: Avenger Field
Sweetwater, Nolan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) trained here in military aircraft during World War II, from February 21, 1943, through final graduation day, December 7, 1944. Avenger Field first served as a training base for British Royal Air Force Cadets in 1942, then for U.S. Army Air Forces Cadets August 1942 - April 1943. The WASP program was started under General H.H. ("Hap") Arnold to train women to fly every kind of mission short of combat, releasing male pilots for overseas duty. Jacqueline Cochran was director of women pilots; Ethel A. Sheehy, WASP staff field executive; Nancy Harness Love, WASP staff executive-ferrying division; and Leoti Clark Deaton, WASP staff executive-training bases. Of 25,000 girls who applied for WASP flight training. 1,830 were accepted; 1,074 won their silver wings. The WASPs flew 60 million miles on operational duty; 37 lost their lives serving their country. WASPs had civil service--not military--status, but were granted eligibility to apply for reserve commissions in the Air Corps after the WASP program ended when the allies were winning the war in Europe and the U.S.A. pilot shortage was past. Avenger Field was closed after a short post-WASP span of service as a missile base. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From February 1943 to December 1944, Avenger Field trained the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, the first women to fly American military aircraft, freeing male pilots for combat overseas. Under director Jacqueline Cochran and General 'Hap' Arnold's program, more than a thousand of the 25,000 applicants earned their silver wings and went on to fly some sixty million miles of noncombat missions; thirty-seven died in service. Though they flew as civilians, the WASPs were later made eligible for reserve commissions—and the field itself finished its service as a missile base.
Why it matters
Avenger Field was the singular home of the WASPs, a landmark in both aviation and women's history where American women first proved themselves at the controls of military planes.
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Related people
- · Jacqueline Cochran
- · Henry H. Arnold
- · Nancy Harkness Love
- · Ethel A. Sheehy
- · Leoti Clark Deaton
Related events
- · Women's Airforce Service Pilots program
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Women Airforce Service Pilots
Sweetwater, TX
Pressed for pilots in World War II, the Army Air Forces embraced aviator Jacqueline Cochran's plan to train women fliers, and in 1943 the program settled at Avenger Field in Sweetwater—the first and only all-female military flying school in the world. Of 25,000 applicants, only 1,830 were accepted and 1,074 earned their silver wings, going on to ferry aircraft and fly non-combat missions for more than 60 million miles; thirty-eight died in service. Classed as civilians during the war, the WASP did not win military recognition until special legislation passed in 1977.
W.A.S.P. (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) Training Base: Avenger Field
Sweetwater, TX
At Avenger Field near Sweetwater, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots trained during World War II — the only coeducational military flying field in U.S. history. From 25,000 applicants, 1,830 were accepted and 1,074 earned their wings, flying 60 million miles for the Army Air Forces under director Jacqueline Cochran. Living under military discipline yet holding only civil-service status, WASPs ferried planes, towed gunnery targets, tested aircraft, and flew countless support missions; thirty-seven died in service.
Cornelia Clark Fort
Merkel, TX
Cornelia Fort, born into an affluent Nashville family in 1919, discovered flying at twenty-one and within a week had logged over 2,000 miles; by 1941 she was an instructor. She was aloft with a student over Hawaii when Japanese planes struck Pearl Harbor, landing safely under fire, and soon joined Nancy Harkness Love's Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. On March 21, 1943, ferrying a BT-13 in formation toward Dallas, her plane was struck and went down in Mulberry Canyon — making her, records indicate, the first American woman pilot to die on active military duty.
Site of U. S. Army Air Corps Plane Crash
Sweetwater, TX
At dawn on April 20, 1945, a C-47 transport carrying 25 Army Air Corps officers and enlisted men left Midland Army Air Field bound for Nashville, Tennessee. Sweetwater cab drivers spotted the plane afire in mid-air, and it disintegrated and crashed 0.6 miles east of this spot, scattering wreckage along a two-mile line and killing all aboard — men aged 20 to 37 from across the nation. Investigators concluded the aircraft, worn from 4,000 hours of glider-towing duty, had broken apart in a thunderstorm's severe turbulence while flying on a single engine.