![Women Airforce Service Pilots walk among North American AT-6 aircraft at an American base during World War II. [Credit: Public Domain/Museum of Flight]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/WASP-.jpg)
This year the Museum of Flight (MOF) in Seattle will celebrate Memorial Day on May 25 with an hour of patriotic music performed by the Boeing Employees’ Concert Band starting at noon PDT.
Following the concert, the MOF will honor the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) by welcoming historian and author Katherine Landdeck, who will talk about her new book, The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II. Landdeck, an associate professor at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, is a globally recognized expert on the WASP.
At 2 p.m. Landdeck will deliver an inspiring Memorial Day program about the WASP. To this day, their story is often overlooked.
- READ MORE: Funding Needed to Share Untold Stories of WASPs
- READ MORE: Fashion and Flying at the Museum of Flight
The women were volunteers. They arrived at training already certified pilots—some with hundreds of hours behind the stick of light training aircraft—and then were put to the test learning to fly the Army way. Once they earned their wings, they worked flying non-combatant roles, such as ferrying aircraft and target towing.
Although the WASP faced the same dangers as the male pilots, flew military aircraft, wore military uniforms, and operated under military rules and regulations, they were not recognized as veterans—or granted veteran benefits—until decades later. If one died in service to her country, it was up to the other women to pass the hat to ship the body home since the WASP did not qualify for military burial.
Landdeck will be giving special recognition to the women killed in the line of duty while serving in the WASP ranks.
The presentation also will include an audience Q&A session followed by a book signing.
The program is free with admission to the museum.
In celebration of Memorial Day and in honor of American veterans and active-duty military, the MOF gives thanks for that service with free admission all weekend—Saturday, May 23, through Monday, May 25.
