Meet The Woman Bringing The Forgotten Story Of WWII’s WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) To The Stage

“When I heard about Pearl Harbor, I was horrified. I wanted to do something in the war. I didn’t know what. I tried to donate blood and they said I wasn’t old enough. Then my father told me about the WASP. I thought, that’s perfect. That’s why I learned to fly…” – Dori Marland Martin 43-8

More than 25,000 women applied for the job. Over 1,000  of them paid their own way to travel to basic training in Sweetwater, TX, and made it through. At least 38 gave their lives without having veteran or military status, meaning their families didn’t receive any benefits for their time in service. These were the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) of World War II—real-life superheroes and pioneers, whose stories have long been cast aside by the government and popular culture. 

Actor, writer and educator, Patricia Noonen, is working to change that. Unearthing this part of American history, her musical, Sweetwater, chronicles the journey of two sisters who traveled to Sweetwater, TX, and came together with women from across the country to fly as test pilots for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Risking their lives every day, these women mastered 77 types of planes, and were among the first to test the B-29 bomber. In that era, the country was making planes at unprecedented numbers, and the WASP were proving what was possible in aviation.

A story of sisterhood, Noonen says Sweetwater celebrates how these women held space and reflected back to one another what they did for the country.  

“America has been very individualistic with its storytelling,” says Noonen. “We love a story of a single pioneer like Amelia Earheart, and we treat stories about women like a monolith at times. While individual women pioneers are amazing, I was more interested in telling the story of a community that rose together. Reading the words of the WASP and talking to the ones that we’ve had the privilege of meeting, I see them as living and legendary proof that there’s more than one way to be a woman.” 

Taking Names & Making Dreams 

“I, for one, am profoundly grateful that my one talent, my only knowledge, flying, happens to be of use to my country when it is needed. That’s all the luck I ever hope to have.” – Cornelia Fort (first American woman pilot to die in service during WWII)

A member of the #dreamMaker community started by Charles Ressler, Noonen has gotten creative about how to pivot the format of Sweetwater during Covid-19. 

“Part of the gift that Charles gave was just really galvanizing me to just keep figuring out ways to proceed with the project, even though the conventional way of workshopping it on a stage with people live in the moment was not was not possible,” shares Noonen. 

Noonen and Sweetwater composers, Sean Mahoney and Liz Filios, whose parents were pilots in the Air Force and whose sister is a commercial pilot, are currently developing a Covid-19 safe version of the show for the Philadelphia Women’s Theater Festival, which is taking place this summer. When theaters open again they hope to find partners to develop the project as a live stage musical, and license it to high schools and colleges to perform, so that young people can learn from the WASP in an immersive way. 

Regarding her own personal history with the performing arts in high school, Noonen said: “I went to an all girls high school. We had an incredible theater program, but a lot of times girls had to play boys’ parts. There weren’t enough roles for women. There weren’t shows that young people could easily step into and explore people like themselves. That’s why making Sweetwater is so important to me.” 

“Patricia is a great example of the big power of a small act,” says Ressler. “#dreamMaker has been able to make a few meaningful introductions for Patricia, and guide her to some resources she needs. But what’s been most helpful is having someone who believes, someone who takes the time to remind her that she is a powerful creative force who, by doing the work, will reap the benefits. #dreamMaker has also helped Patricia brainstorm a way forward when it seems like one dead end after another. #dreamMaker reminds us that there is always a way by being creative, employing ingenuity, and/or finding someone to help.” 

Indeed. At the root of all dreams lives persistence. 

The Power Of Persistence And Honoring A Legacy 

On being deactivated before the war even ended…“On that last sad day, how could we have known? I don’t think any of us realized it then, but when we look back, yes, the WASP forever changed the role of women in aviation. We paved the way so that future female pilots could fly even higher.”  – Deanie Bishop Parrish 44-4

In 2018, Noonen and her cast performed at the 75th Homecoming of the WASP, where the women trained in Texas. At that time, they met some of the pilots and their families.

“I’ve been sharing the WASP story for over two decades in honor of my late mother, Muriel Lindstrom Segall, and her band of flygirl sisters,” shares LuckyLindy Segall, the daughter of a WASP. “It was pure serendipity when Patricia Noonan invited me to the first public reading of Sweetwater. To see the musical come to life on stage in high schools and college theaters would be a dream fulfilled!”

“They {the WASP] didn’t get sent home with a flag or have honors; they had to keep fighting,” says Noonen. “So one of the lessons I’ve learned from doing this project has definitely been persistence. I mean, they kept fighting for military status until 1977 under President Carter, and that was the first time that that happened. But then, the first woman who was granted status wasn’t given burial rights in Arlington Cemetery until 2016. This is still continuing, and that was partially made possible by the test pilot’s granddaughter, Erin Miller, who’s a lawyer and fought for her grandmother to have that recognition.” 

Today, less than 8% of existing commercial pilots are women, and 26% are air traffic controllers, although women make up roughly 30% of the aviation workforce (203,725 individuals), including flight attendants, who comprise the majority of this group (183,519 individuals).

Flying With Unabashed Passion 

“I expected to fly off into the clouds with a long white silver (silk) scarf floating out behind me, you know, all this glamour…Wasn’t that way, kiddo. We worked like dogs in dirty, greasy coveralls. We had to break down an engine, we had some tough ground school classes, but oh, the flying was so wonderful.” – Doris Brinker Tanner 44-4

Coupled with persistence, passion lit a path in the sky for the WASP. 

“These women loved flying, and that unabashed passion, sometimes that’s not something we focus on so much in women’s stories,” says Nooen. “That’s something else we need to include more of in our storytelling—women unabashedly wanting something, wanting something for their country, but also for themselves.” 

In the immortal words of WASP, Annelle Henderson Bulechek: “You can be whatever you want to be and whatever you set your heart and head to be, and don’t let anybody tell you you can’t be because 1074 women did it in World War II.  They said we couldn’t do it.  We did it, and we did it successfully…I think that’s the legacy we should leave behind us—that laws and lawsuits and everything else doesn’t make you what you are.  It’s what you want to be and what you go ahead and do that counts.”