In 1942, the U.S. Army Air Forces desperately needed pilots for the two-front war that no one was sure they could win. They needed pilots to fight, but they also needed pilots to fly planes the factories were building to points of embarkation on each coast. Desperate for women to fly, the AAF decided to bring them in as civilians, just as they did some men, and work out the bureaucratic details later. The WASPs began with a small group of highly qualified female pilots, later expanding to less-experienced women who went through the same training as male cadets to earn their wings. They flew 60 million domestic miles during the war, taking on every flying job their country asked of them.

But their semi-civilian, semi-military status wasn’t working. The women were stuck between the two worlds. They had to buy their own insurance. If they were injured, they were sent home to care for themselves with no help from the government. When one of the women was killed, the response of the AAF depended on the commander at the particular base. Some women were honored with a service on the base and escorted home by a fellow WASP at the expense of the AAF. The families of others received cold telegrams telling them, “Your daughter was killed this morning. Where do you want the body?” The families of the 38 women killed were not allowed to put the same gold star on their windows as other families of fallen service members.

And yet while serving, WASPs were treated as officers wearing uniforms. They earned demerits, were admitted to officers clubs, and were saluted by enlisted personnel. They did the same work as male AAF pilots serving stateside, with safer flying records and faster aircraft deliveries than the men.

In 1944, the AAF decided it was time to carry out its initial plan and make the WASPs, who were all pilots, an official part of the military. General Henry “Hap” Arnold first testified before Congress in the spring of 1944, asking for the women to be formally made a part of the Army Air Forces. He expected it to happen. Congress had never said no to him before.

While he was advocating for the women, there was another group of pilots losing their jobs. The Allies had finally gained the upper hand in the air war against Germany and Japan, and since the U.S. was not losing as many pilots in combat, it didn’t need to train as many of them. Civilian men who served as primary flight instructors were losing their draft deferments. They wanted the positions that the WASPs held.

Arnold had little regard for these men, who now badgered their members of Congress for support at the expense of the WASPs. The men had been offered positions in the reserves and turned them down, preferring to retain their civilian status. And yet the story about “glamour girls” taking the jobs of hard-working men caught the ear of Congress. It rejected formally bringing the WASPs into the USAAF by just 19 votes, with 73 members abstaining. On December 20, 1944, the women were thanked for a job well done and sent home, despite the fact that war still raged and planes sat waiting to be flown.