Janet Hargrave, 84; Flew Noncombat Missions for WASP
LA Times
Janet Hargrave, one of only 1,074 female pilots who earned their wings as members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a group that flew noncombat missions across the United States during World War II, has died. She was 84.
Hargrave died Jan. 4 at her home in Malibu after a series of strokes, according to Pauline Greene, a longtime friend.
Starting in 1942, some 25,000 women volunteered to go through WASP training. Only 1,830 were accepted, and nearly half did not graduate.
The group’s seven-month preparation time included a physical regimen that was the same as the one for male Army Air Forces cadets. The women also took courses in pilot navigation, meteorology, mathematics and physics.
