A bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots ("WASP").
PL 111-40 (S.614), enacted 07/01/2009

123 STAT. 1958 
PUBLIC LAW 111–40—JULY 1, 2009 
Public Law 111–40 
111th Congress 
An Act 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots 
(‘‘WASP’’). 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII, known 
as the ‘‘WASP’’, were the first women in history to fly American 
military aircraft; 
(2) more than 60 years ago, they flew fighter, bomber, 
transport, and training aircraft in defense of America’s freedom; 
(3) they faced overwhelming cultural and gender bias 
against women in nontraditional roles and overcame multiple 
injustices and inequities in order to serve their country; 
(4) through their actions, the WASP eventually were the 
catalyst for revolutionary reform in the integration of women 
pilots into the Armed Services; 
(5) during the early months of World War II, there was 
a severe shortage of combat pilots; 
(6) Jacqueline Cochran, America’s leading woman pilot of 
the time, convinced General Hap Arnold, Chief of the Army 
Air Forces, that women, if given the same training as men, 
would be equally capable of flying military aircraft and could 
then take over some of the stateside military flying jobs, thereby 
releasing hundreds of male pilots for combat duty; 
(7) the severe loss of male combat pilots made the necessity 
of utilizing women pilots to help in the war effort clear to 
General Arnold, and a women’s pilot training program was 
soon approved; 
(8) it was not until August 1943, that the women aviators 
would receive their official name; 
(9) General Arnold ordered that all women pilots flying 
military aircraft, including 28 civilian women ferry pilots, would 
be named ‘‘WASP’’, Women Airforce Service Pilots; 
(10) more than 25,000 American women applied for 
training, but only 1,830 were accepted and took the oath; 
(11) exactly 1,074 of those trainees successfully completed 
the 21 to 27 weeks of Army Air Forces flight training, grad-
uated, and received their Army Air Forces orders to report 
to their assigned air base; 
(12) on November 16, 1942, the first class of 29 women 
pilots reported to the Houston, Texas Municipal Airport and 
31 USC 5111 
note. 
July 1, 2009 
[S. 614] 
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123 STAT. 1959 
PUBLIC LAW 111–40—JULY 1, 2009 
began the same military flight training as the male Army 
Air Forces cadets were taking; 
(13) due to a lack of adequate facilities at the airport, 
3 months later the training program was moved to Avenger 
Field in Sweetwater, Texas; 
(14) WASP were eventually stationed at 120 Army air 
bases all across America; 
(15) they flew more than 60,000,000 miles for their country 
in every type of aircraft and on every type of assignment 
flown by the male Army Air Forces pilots, except combat; 
(16) WASP assignments included test piloting, instructor 
piloting, towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice, ground- 
to-air anti-aircraft practice, ferrying, transporting personnel 
and cargo (including parts for the atomic bomb), simulated 
strafing, smoke laying, night tracking, and flying drones; 
(17) in October 1943, male pilots were refusing to fly the 
B–26 Martin Marauder (known as the ‘‘Widowmaker’’) because 
of its fatality records, and General Arnold ordered WASP 
Director, Jacqueline Cochran, to select 25 WASP to be trained 
to fly the B–26 to prove to the male pilots that it was safe 
to fly; 
(18) during the existence of the WASP— 
(A) 38 women lost their lives while serving their 
country; 
(B) their bodies were sent home in poorly crafted pine 
boxes; 
(C) their burial was at the expense of their families 
or classmates; 
(D) there were no gold stars allowed in their parents’ 
windows; and 
(E) because they were not considered military, no 
American flags were allowed on their coffins; 
(19) in 1944, General Arnold made a personal request 
to Congress to militarize the WASP, and it was denied; 
(20) on December 7, 1944, in a speech to the last graduating 
class of WASP, General Arnold said, ‘‘You and more than 
900 of your sisters have shown you can fly wingtip to wingtip 
with your brothers. I salute you . . . We of the Army Air 
Force are proud of you. We will never forget our debt to you.’’; 
(21) with victory in WWII almost certain, on December 
20, 1944, the WASP were quietly and unceremoniously dis-
banded; 
(22) there were no honors, no benefits, and very few ‘‘thank 
you’s’’; 
(23) just as they had paid their own way to enter training, 
they had to pay their own way back home after their honorable 
service to the military; 
(24) the WASP military records were immediately sealed, 
stamped ‘‘classified’’ or ‘‘secret’’, and filed away in Government 
archives, unavailable to the historians who wrote the history 
of WWII or the scholars who compiled the history text books 
used today, with many of the records not declassified until 
the 1980s; 
(25) consequently, the WASP story is a missing chapter 
in the history of the Air Force, the history of aviation, and 
the history of the United States of America; 
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123 STAT. 1960 
PUBLIC LAW 111–40—JULY 1, 2009 
(26) in 1977, 33 years after the WASP were disbanded, 
the Congress finally voted to give the WASP the veteran status 
they had earned, but these heroic pilots were not invited to 
the signing ceremony at the White House, and it was not 
until 7 years later that their medals were delivered in the 
mail in plain brown envelopes; 
(27) in the late 1970s, more than 30 years after the WASP 
flew in World War II, women were finally permitted to attend 
military pilot training in the United States Armed Forces; 
(28) thousands of women aviators flying support aircraft 
have benefitted from the service of the WASP and followed 
in their footsteps; 
(29) in 1993, the WASP were once again referenced during 
congressional hearings regarding the contributions that women 
could make to the military, which eventually led to women 
being able to fly military fighter, bomber, and attack aircraft 
in combat; 
(30) hundreds of United States servicewomen combat pilots 
have seized the opportunity to fly fighter aircraft in recent 
conflicts, all thanks to the pioneering steps taken by the WASP; 
(31) the WASP have maintained a tight-knit community, 
forged by the common experiences of serving their country 
during war; 
(32) as part of their desire to educate America on the 
WASP history, WASP have assisted ‘‘Wings Across America’’, 
an organization dedicated to educating the American public, 
with much effort aimed at children, about the remarkable 
accomplishments of these WWII veterans; and 
(33) the WASP have been honored with exhibits at 
numerous museums, to include— 
(A) the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; 
(B) the Women in Military Service to America Memo-
rial at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia; 
(C) the National Museum of the United States Air 
Force, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; 
(D) the National WASP WWII Museum, Sweetwater, 
Texas; 
(E) the 8th Air Force Museum, Savannah, Georgia; 
(F) the Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston, Texas; 
(G) the American Airpower Museum, Farmingdale, 
New York; 
(H) the Pima Air Museum, Tucson, Arizona; 
(I) the Seattle Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington; 
(J) the March Air Museum, March Reserve Air Base, 
California; and 
(K) the Texas State History Museum, Austin, Texas. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The President pro tempore of the 
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall 
make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of the 
Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor 
of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) collectively, in recogni-
tion of their pioneering military service and exemplary record, 
which forged revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces of the 
United States of America. 
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123 STAT. 1961 
PUBLIC LAW 111–40—JULY 1, 2009 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S. 614: 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 155 (2009): 
May 20, considered and passed Senate. 
June 16, considered and passed House. 
(b) DESIGN
AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the award 
referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury shall 
strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscrip-
tions, to be determined by the Secretary. 
(c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the gold medal 
in honor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the gold medal 
shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will 
be displayed as appropriate and made available for research. 
(2) SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.—It is the sense of the Con-
gress that the Smithsonian Institution shall make the gold 
medal received under this Act available for display elsewhere, 
particularly at other locations associated with the WASP. 
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck under this Act, at a price sufficient to cover the 
costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dyes, use of 
machinery, and overhead expenses. 
SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS. 
Medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for 
purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code. 
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; PROCEEDS OF SALE. 
(a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is authorized 
to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
Fund, an amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of 
the medal authorized under section 2. 
(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the sale of 
duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the 
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund. 
Approved July 1, 2009. 
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