S 614 RFH

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (‘WASP’).CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Congress finds that--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII, known as the ‘WASP’, were the first women in history to fly American military aircraft;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) more than 60 years ago, they flew fighter, bomber, transport, and training aircraft in defense of America’s freedom;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) they faced overwhelming cultural and gender bias against women in nontraditional roles and overcame multiple injustices and inequities in order to serve their country;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) through their actions, the WASP eventually were the catalyst for revolutionary reform in the integration of women pilots into the Armed Services;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(5) during the early months of World War II, there was a severe shortage of combat pilots;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(6) Jacqueline Cochran, America’s leading woman pilot of the time, convinced General Hap Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces, 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;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(7) the severe loss of male combat pilots made the necessity of utilizing women pilots to help in the war effort clear to General Arnold, and a women’s pilot training program was soon approved;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(8) it was not until August 1943, that the women aviators would receive their official name;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(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;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(10) more than 25,000 American women applied for training, but only 1,830 were accepted and took the oath;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(11) exactly 1,074 of those trainees successfully completed the 21 to 27 weeks of Army Air Forces flight training, graduated, and received their Army Air Forces orders to report to their assigned air base;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(12) on November 16, 1942, the first class of 29 women pilots reported to the Houston, Texas Municipal Airport and began the same military flight training as the male Army Air Forces cadets were taking;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(13) due to a lack of adequate facilities at the airport, 3 months later the training program was moved to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(14) WASP were eventually stationed at 120 Army air bases all across America;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(15) they flew more than 60,000,000 miles for their country in every type of aircraft and on every type of assignment flown by the male Army Air Forces pilots, except combat;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(16) WASP assignments included test piloting, instructor piloting, towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice, ground-to-air anti-aircraft practice, ferrying, transporting personnel and cargo (including parts for the atomic bomb), simulated strafing, smoke laying, night tracking, and flying drones;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(17) in October 1943, male pilots were refusing to fly the B-26 Martin Marauder (known as the ‘Widowmaker’) because of its fatality records, and General Arnold ordered WASP Director, Jacqueline Cochran, to select 25 WASP to be trained to fly the B-26 to prove to the male pilots that it was safe to fly;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(18) during the existence of the WASP--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) 38 women lost their lives while serving their country;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) their bodies were sent home in poorly crafted pine boxes;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) their burial was at the expense of their families or classmates;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(D) there were no gold stars allowed in their parents’ windows; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(E) because they were not considered military, no American flags were allowed on their coffins;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(19) in 1944, General Arnold made a personal request to Congress to militarize the WASP, and it was denied;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(20) on December 7, 1944, in a speech to the last graduating class of WASP, General Arnold said, ‘You and more than 900 of your sisters have shown you can fly wingtip to wingtip with your brothers. I salute you . . . We of the Army Air Force are proud of you. We will never forget our debt to you.’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(21) with victory in WWII almost certain, on December 20, 1944, the WASP were quietly and unceremoniously disbanded;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(22) there were no honors, no benefits, and very few ‘thank you’s’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(23) just as they had paid their own way to enter training, they had to pay their own way back home after their honorable service to the military;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(24) the WASP military records were immediately sealed, stamped ‘classified’ or ‘secret’, and filed away in Government archives, unavailable to the historians who wrote the history of WWII or the scholars who compiled the history text books used today, with many of the records not declassified until the 1980s;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(25) consequently, the WASP story is a missing chapter in the history of the Air Force, the history of aviation, and the history of the United States of America;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(26) in 1977, 33 years after the WASP were disbanded, the Congress finally voted to give the WASP the veteran status they had earned, but these heroic pilots were not invited to the signing ceremony at the White House, and it was not until 7 years later that their medals were delivered in the mail in plain brown envelopes;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(27) in the late 1970s, more than 30 years after the WASP flew in World War II, women were finally permitted to attend military pilot training in the United States Armed Forces;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(28) thousands of women aviators flying support aircraft have benefitted from the service of the WASP and followed in their footsteps;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(29) in 1993, the WASP were once again referenced during congressional hearings regarding the contributions that women could make to the military, which eventually led to women being able to fly military fighter, bomber, and attack aircraft in combat;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(30) hundreds of United States servicewomen combat pilots have seized the opportunity to fly fighter aircraft in recent conflicts, all thanks to the pioneering steps taken by the WASP;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(31) the WASP have maintained a tight-knit community, forged by the common experiences of serving their country during war;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(32) as part of their desire to educate America on the WASP history, WASP have assisted ‘Wings Across America’, an organization dedicated to educating the American public, with much effort aimed at children, about the remarkable accomplishments of these WWII veterans; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(33) the WASP have been honored with exhibits at numerous museums, to include--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) the Women in Military Service to America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(D) the National WASP WWII Museum, Sweetwater, Texas;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(E) the 8th Air Force Museum, Savannah, Georgia;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(F) the Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston, Texas;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(G) the American Airpower Museum, Farmingdale, New York;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(H) the Pima Air Museum, Tucson, Arizona;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(I) the Seattle Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(J) the March Air Museum, March Reserve Air Base, California; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(K) the Texas State History Museum, Austin, Texas.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(a) Award Authorized- The President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of the Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) collectively, in recognition of their pioneering military service and exemplary record, which forged revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(b) Design and Striking- For the purposes of the award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury shall strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(c) Smithsonian Institution-CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) IN GENERAL- Following the award of the gold medal in honor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the gold medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will be displayed as appropriate and made available for research.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) SENSE OF THE CONGRESS- It is the sense of the Congress that the Smithsonian Institution shall make the gold medal received under this Act available for display elsewhere, particularly at other locations associated with the WASP.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under this Act, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dyes, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

(a) Authorization of Appropriations- There is authorized to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, an amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medal authorized under section 2.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(b) Proceeds of Sale- Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Passed the Senate May 20, 2009.

Attest:

NANCY ERICKSON,

President of the Senate.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink