Katherine Sharp Landdeck With Nell Bright, Moderated by Tracy V. Wilson

Historian Katherine Sharp Landdeck’s The Women With Silver Wings (Crown) is the thrilling true story of the daring female aviators who helped the United States win World War II — only to be forgotten by the country they served. Landdeck introduces us to these young women as they meet even-tempered, methodical Nancy Love and demanding visionary Jacqueline Cochran, the trailblazing pilots who first envisioned sending American women into the air, and whose rivalry would define the Women Airforce Service Pilots. While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight of them would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran’s social experiment seemed to be a resounding success — until, with the tides of war turning and fewer male pilots needed in Europe, Congress clipped the women’s wings. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they’d forged never failed, and over the next few decades, they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were — and for their place in history. Landdeck will be joined in conversation by WASP Nell Bright, with moderation by Tracy V. Wilson, cohost of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast.

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