Original Items: Only One Available. This is a fantastic WASP Day program from July 1994 featuring 6 different “WASP” pilot signatures. This event was hosted by The Avengers Squadron of the Confederate Air Force. The Commemorative Air Force (CAF), formerly known as the Confederate Air Force, is an American non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas, that preserves and shows historical aircraft at airshows, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.

The CAF has about 13,000 members, more than 70 chapters, and more than 170 aircraft, including the world's largest collection of airworthy warbirds.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft, and trained other pilots. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II. Despite various members of the armed forces being involved in the creation of the program, the WASP and its members had no military standing.

WASP was preceded by the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). Both were organized separately in September 1942. They were pioneering organizations of civilian women pilots, who were attached to the United States Army Air Forces to fly military aircraft during World War II. On August 5, 1943, the WFTD and WAFS merged to create the WASP organization.

The WASP arrangement with the US Army Air Forces ended on December 20, 1944. During its period of operation, each member's service had freed a male pilot for military combat or other duties. They flew over 60 million miles; transported every type of military aircraft; towed targets for live anti-aircraft gun practice; simulated strafing missions and transported cargo. Thirty-eight WASP members lost their lives and one, Gertrude Tompkins, disappeared while on a ferry mission, her fate still unknown. In 1977, for their World War II service, the members were granted veteran status, and in 2009 awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Signatures In This Lot:

- Mary Baldwin 'Jackie' Jackson Kinney: Mary was born in Roanoke, Va., on Oct. 28, 1912, the second child of Mark Roberts and Elizabeth Baldwin Jackson.

After graduating from junior College with a secretarial degree, Mary "Jackie" Jackson took flying lessons before World War II. She joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1940 and then became interested in the Women Airforce Service Pilots, which was an elite group of women pilots.

She first applied for admission in Roanoke, but was turned down because she was too short. She then moved on her own to New

On the day of her physical she ate a half dozen bananas to add weight, then stood discreetly on her toes when they measured her height. She was accepted and served with the WASP until their division was disbanded.

- Anne M. Shields (McCready): No service information found but great photographs were discovered, be sure to check out the photo section.

- Ruby Rosenthal (Hibbler): No service information found but she was confirmed on multiple rosters as having served as a WASP.

- Ann Criswell Madden: Ann “Cris” Criswell Madden grew up in Ohio and Maryland. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, where she also earned a pilot’s license.

Ann Criswell graduated in the class of 43-W-6 on 9 Oct 1943. During her time with the WASP she was assigned to Long Beach Army Air Base (CA). In the performance of her duties she flew many types of military aircraft, including the PT-19, BT-13, UC78 and attended Pursuit School to enable her to ferry pursuit aircraft from factories to airfields.

She met her future husband, Paul Madden, an Army Air Corps captain, at a base in California. They were married in 1945 and had 10 children. In 1966, while they were living in Merion, he died in an automobile crash. Fortunately, their daughter Laura Grant said, her father, who owned an insurance company, had sufficient coverage so that Mrs. Madden did not need to work to support her family.

Mrs. Madden encouraged her children to speak in public, her daughter said, and took her own advice. She developed slide lectures on art appreciation and on her travels, and she included her war experiences in a lecture, “These Magnificent Young Women in Their Flying Machines.

She was posthumously awarded a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal for her service in WWII as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

- Joan Oast: The signature is a little difficult to read, so the name may be wrong.

- Virginia “Scotty” Gough: “Don’t ever put limits on your dreams. Dream farther and higher than you can imagine. I would never have flown if I hadn’t looked to the sky and beyond.”

Scotty Bradley was born on October 28, 1922 in Los Angeles, California. She lost her mother at an early age, so she and her two brothers were raised by their dad.

From the time she could remember, she said she wanted to fly. Even before she was old enough to take lessons, she read everything she could on flying. When she realized that pilots had to have good eyesight, she began eating carrots, one each day, which she did for the rest of her life.

After high school graduation, she was chosen as one of ten finalists for a college scholarship. When interviewed, she was asked what she wanted to be, and what courses she would take. When she told the committee she wanted to be a pilot and take aeronautical engineering courses, the looks on their faces convinced her the scholarship was not going to happen. So, she began working in a bank, earning $25 a week. Her dad encouraged her to take part of her salary and follow her dream. She did.

Scotty began taking ground school and flying lessons at Glendale Municipal Airport in Glendale, California. It was after she had soloed and on an early Sunday morning (December 7, 1941), while practicing landings, that she was given a red-light signal. When she taxied to the hangar, she learned that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. America was at war. Immediately, all civilian flying within 200 miles of the coast was grounded.

In order to be able to continue flying, she commuted inland to Blythe, California, whose municipal airport was beyond the restricted coast line ‘no-fly’ zone. There she worked on the weekends with an ambulance corps that was teaching women to fly. Once the Blythe Army Air Field became operational, Scotty relocated closer to the base and worked in the base’s control tower. However, she also continued to build up her flying time.

When Scotty heard about the WASP training program, she wrote to Jackie Cochran, the originator of the program and its director. The reply was disappointing. She was told that, although she had all the basic requirements, she wasn’t old enough. She then knew that she would have to wait a year before reapplying.

During that year, the owner of the local airport offered her free flying time if she would make parachute jumps, which would attract people to the airport. Her instructions for her first jump came from the parachute rigger: “When you jump out that door, you count to ten real slow, because I don’t want that parachute caught in the tail and ripped up.” She made her first jump and continued jumping and building up her flying time until she was old enough to report to Avenger Field for WASP training.

Scotty paid her way to Sweetwater, Texas and, on February 11, 1944, reported for training (together with ninety-seven other hopeful young women pilots) as a member of Class 44-W-7. She was immediately chosen Squadron Commander. This ‘honor’ meant she was responsible for marching the trainees everywhere, was last in line for the mess hall, and the first one out the door each morning in order to line up her classmates to march to their destination, be it the mess hall, flight line, ground school, or calisthenics.

For the next seven months, she went through the Army Air Force’s training program, taking the same type classes and flying the same type airplanes as the AAF cadets were flying. On September 8, 1944, Scotty and fifty-eight of her classmates graduated. One final time, Scotty lined them up, and they proudly marched onto the stage to receive their silver WASP wings.

After graduating, she received her Army Air Force orders to report to Williams Army Air Field in Mesa, Arizona, which was under the command of the West Coast Training Center. While there, she was assigned to fly ferry missions in AT-6‘s. She also flew as an engineering test pilot, making sure that damaged or red-lined planes had been repaired and were safe for the cadets and instructors to fly.

When the WASP were deactivated, she returned to California and flew sightseeing flights around southern California. Eventually, she joined other WASP as part of a ferrying service, flying planes to civilian factories around the country and back to California.

In November of 1947, Scotty married Peter Gough, the brother of classmate Joan Frost Gough. She continued flying until the young couple started their family. Her last commercial flight as a pilot was the day Idlewild Airport became John F. Kennedy Airport. Although she was seven months pregnant at the time, Scotty flew a Luscome as part of the opening day ceremonies. With the arrival of each of their children: Michael, Joan-Scott, Larry, and Connie, she was a dedicated, full-time mom.

For many years, she shared her story as a WASP by traveling to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and speaking at EAA’s Air Venture. She was also a tireless volunteer in the WASP Stores at Oshkosh and at other air shows across the country. She was a frequent speaker at local events and schools and helped establish a WASP exhibit at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Base.

In 2002, she was inducted into the 99‘s “Forest of Friendship,” and in 2007, she was inducted into the “Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame”. She was a life member of the First Flight Society at Kitty Hawk and an Honorary Commander at Dover Air Base in Delaware.

How did Scotty feel about being a WASP?

“ I want you to know that all of us were just — some people asked us, you know, why we did this– why we flew. It was an honor and a privilege for us to serve our country, doing what we loved best, and that was to fly. But to tell you the truth, and every WASP will agree with me on this: if I had had the money at that time, I would have gladly paid them for that wonderful training and the opportunity to fly those wonderful airplanes.”

In 2010, Scotty and her sister WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their outstanding service to our country during World War II. At the ceremony, which was held in the Emancipation Hall of the United States Capitol, she was seated on the front row.

Scotty never lost her love of flying or of parachute jumping. Always an outstanding athlete, she eventually added golf, tennis, bowling, gardening and cards to her passions, along with enthusiastically ‘rooting’ for her favorite team: the Maryland Terrapins. She loved living near the beach, where she spent time walking and swimming. Her many acts of kindness she kept to herself, but her family is just now beginning to learn the depth of her compassionate, loving spirit.

On May 22, Scotty quietly slipped away. Her two daughters were at her bedside. Her latest hospital stay and battle with pneumonia had weakened her to the point that, when she developed a bacterial infection, she wasn’t able to overcome it. Her one wish was to go back home, which she was able to do on May 21st. Her family later learned that the day she died was also the birthday of her younger brother, who had been deceased for several years.

Scotty took her final flight moments before a terrible rain storm arrived. Her family is sure she wanted to get beyond the clouds before they came in, as they lovingly expressed it: “She’d always look at the clouds and say how beautiful they were, but she wouldn’t want to be flying through them.”

“What we’ll all remember and miss about mom was her ever present smile, her constant wave and greeting of: “Hello, Love”, and her usual farewell of: “God Bless.”

- Faith Richards: In 1943, Faith joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in Sweetwater, TX. Although her assignment was ferrying aircraft from Wilmington, DE, she was soon test hopping aircraft and shuttling personnel. In December of that year, she was transferred to Greenwood, MS, where she spent the next 22 months. One of only two women on the base, she soon became "Bucky". During her WASP career, she flew 16 different aircraft, including the BT-13, AT-6, B-26 and B-24. In the early 1970s, Faith became the 74th woman in the free world to receive a helicopter rating. But her time in the sky was not over.

In 1995, at the age of 74, Bucky did it again. Needing help to get in, and out of the aircraft, she was checked out in a glider. The love of flying kept her near aircraft throughout her career. After deactivation, Faith worked with United Airlines in Chicago and Braniff Airways in Dallas. The owner of a travel agency in Albuquerque, she hit the skies again, this time in a balloon. She finally retired from American Airlines in 1986. Faith was a member of the Governor's Advisory Board for Women Veterans for the State of New Jersey.

This is a lovely signature grouping, comes more than ready for further research and display.

NOTE: Pictures are shown for illustrative purposes only and are not included.