Hill museum exhibit focuses on WWII's WASPs

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — A new interpretive exhibit on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II opens today at the Hill Aerospace Museum.

The exhibit showcases the uniforms and artifacts of Utah WASP Alberta Hunt Nicholson (1914-2002), formerly of Salt Lake City. The exhibit also tells the story of the formation of the WASP unit, its training and its role in the war.

Although the WASPs were officially considered Civil Service employees, they were all trained the same as military aviation cadets. They wore military-style clothing, ate in mess halls, lived in military barracks, were trained by military instructors and lived by military law. From 1942 through 1944, the WASP program had 25,000 applicants and trained 1,830 students, out of which 1,074 earned their wings.

They served as test pilots, ferried new aircraft from factories to military bases, towed aerial targets for gunnery practice and undertook many other missions that freed male pilots for the war effort. They logged more than 60 million miles in the air, and 38 died in service.

The exhibit was made possible by financial support of the Dr. Ezekiel and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, and PacifiCorp. For more information, call the museum at 801-777-6818 or visit its Web site, www.hill.af.mil/museum.