Wisconsin Women Were Among First Female Military Aircraft Pilots

Dorothy Hines was studying to be a social worker in the early 1940s when she and five friends purchased a small plane and learned to fly. In 1943, she set off for the District of Columbia to enlist in the Women Airforce Service Pilots — WASP for short — learning to fly, among other aircraft, the biplane she’s climbing into in the image at right.

The first women to fly American military planes, the WASP program began in 1942 when the United States faced a shortage of pilots with so many men fighting overseas. To solve the problem, the government began an experimental program to train women pilots. As part of WASP, about 1,100 women flew nearly every type of aircraft as volunteer civilian pilots.

Hines trained at Avenger Field near Sweetwater, Texas, graduating in August 1944 as a member of Class 44-6 of the WASP. Graduates like Hines were assigned to air bases across the country. They ferried planes to military bases, served as flight instructors, and tested new planes.

Unlike women serving in other branches of the military, however, WASP members were never formally militarized and the program disbanded before the war’s end. The Department of War said the decision was based on indications that there would be enough men to fill flying assignments by the end of the year. The program was deactivated in December 1944 and the women, including Hines, were sent home.

Hines later married her B-26 instructor, Foster Van Mosher, and moved to Pewaukee.