Customer Reviews

Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) of World War II

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*Clipped Wings* is a history of the disbanding of the U.S. Army Air Force Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II. Unfortunately, *Cliiped Wings* is dull reading, academic in the bad sense, which obscures the truth in two or three places in an effort to emphasize the sexism that existed in the 1940's.

The best book I have read about the Women Airforce Service Pilots is *Those Wonderful Women in Their Flying Machines,* by Sally Van Wagenen Kell. Second best is Marianne Verges' *On Silver Wings*.

*Clipped Wings* falis to point out that two women members of Congress, Clare Booth Luce and Margaret Chase Smith, voted to kill the WASPs in 1944. *Clipped Wings* also fails to say, as Marianne Verges demonstrates, that WASP leader Jacky Cochran did not do the best possible job of prolonging the existence of the WASP organization.

In addition, on page 26 of *Clipped Wings*, the author claims that "...WASPs [were used] for top secret missions involved with the Manhattan project," but the book does not substantiate this claim.

Finally, the last chapter of *Clipped Wings* is laden with turgid academese about "hegemony" and "gendering," which in regard to sexism in the 1940's, only belabors the obvious.

This is the best of the books on the WASP program to be published to date. Relying on first-hand interviews and recently declassified documents, Clipped Wings consistently demonstrates that the US failed this group of dedicated veterans.

Of special importance is its amplication of feminist military critiques to an actual branch of the military, proving what before had been strictly theory. The best chapters are those that include numerous examples of media sexism and the ridiculous thought patterns of Congress--two elements of culture that unfortunately still impact women who enter male-dominated fields.

I purchased this book for my daughter who is in high school. She was writing a paper on the WASPS of WWII. She said that it was an excellent source of information for her paper - easy to read and well organized. This book was recommended to her by a former WASP and contains a wealth of information on this group of brave and determined women.

CLipped Wings tells of a situation which should not be a surprise when women only got the right to vote around the time of WW I. Here were women, many of them, living through a time
when they had no voting rights, take the call to help defend
this country.. Some of them like Aline Rhonie Hofheimer of Warren, NJ decided that she too wanted to help. Many of these
women were well to do but had a big purpose. Aline was one of the older ones being born in 1909. She was the only one to fly both in the WAFS and the ATA.. or so I'm told. In any event,
I can not get enough of books about these women and Clipped Wings
,by telling this story has to be considered a gift from the past.