Doris Brinker Tanner, WASP Pilot
Channel: Discovery Park of America
Date: 10/03/2021

As we celebrate Women’s History Month at Discovery Park, we are making people aware of the women who have inspired others to see beyond.

Doris Brinker Tanner of Union City, Tennessee is one of several veterans featured in Discovery Park's War Remembrances Oral History Theater. Tanner discusses her time during World War II performing flight duties for the Army Air Corps as a WASP, which stands for Women Airforce Service Pilots. When World War II began, WASP recruited women to join, since men were needed overseas as soldiers. Tanner was one of 2,000 women selected from over 25,000 applicants, and just over 1,000 women from that group, including Tanner, completed the grueling WASP program. As a member of this women's pilot organization, Tanner would test aircraft, ferry important supplies, instruct male pilot cadets, and even tow objects behind her plane for target practice.