The Ledger - Lakeland,FL,USA
PROVIDED TO THE LEDGER ABOUT 1,100 WOMEN graduated as Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. Three of those women will take part in a panel discussion Friday and Saturday at Fantasy of Flight in Auburndale.
By Gary White
THE LEDGER
Published: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:05 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:05 p.m.
Even at age 90, Helen Wyatt Snapp will travel hundreds of miles to discuss her contribution to the World War II effort.
Perhaps she's still making up for lost time. Snapp and her fellow Women Airforce Service Pilots originally were told to keep quiet about their role in the war, and the details of their service remained classified for decades.
Snapp and two other WASP veterans visit Fantasy of Flight on Friday and Saturday as part of the Auburndale aviation attraction's Living History Symposium Series.
"So many people even today have never even heard of us," said Snapp, a resident of Pembroke Pines in Broward County. "When we were discharged we kind of went back to civilian life. A lot of people didn't believe that I even flew, so I learned to just keep quiet and didn't even talk about it unless somebody brought it up."
The three women - Betty Blake, Bernice "Bee" Falk Haydu and Snapp - will take part in panel discussions Friday and Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. They are scheduled to meet guests each day at 3 p.m.
The WASP program arose after the start of World War II to supply pilots for non-combat and training duties and free up male pilots to be deployed overseas. The Army Air Forces, predecessor of the Air Force, first began training female pilots at a Houston base in 1942, and the program continued through 1944.
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