Honor the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) 

Women in Aviation International (WAI) members and friends will honor the valiant service of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) by visiting their graves and leaving an appropriate decoration in the form of flowers or other remembrances. In its eighth year, the #HonorTheWASP program was established by WAI to take place over the Memorial Day weekend each year.

“Our WAI members nationwide deeply appreciate the service and sacrifice of the remarkable Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) who served with honor during World War II,” says WAI CEO Lynda Coffman. “These courageous and committed women risked their lives in support of the war effort and blazed a trail that has inspired countless others to follow their own aviation dreams.”

WAI chapters across the country have organized efforts to #HonorTheWASP near them, but you don’t have to be a WAI member to #HonorTheWASP. A database of WASP gravesites, including Google maps to their locations, may be found HERE. The original database was provided by Texas Woman’s University (TWU), the home of the Women Airforce Service Pilots archives, and is regularly augmented through research efforts of WAI staff. WAI also provides a commemorative tag that may be printed and used by all. Also, search for your local WAI Chapter here to get involved: www.wai.org/chapters. 

In each of the previous seven years, #HonorTheWASP participants have visited and decorated nearly 100 WASP gravesites annually. WAI and TWU continue to improve the database and add WASP burial sites regularly.

Participants are asked to tweet a photograph of their visit and include who they visited and where they are located using the hashtag #HonorTheWASP. WAI will share and post to its 39.2K Instagram followers and other social media outlets.