WMA Historical Committee

The Historical Committee was formed to support WMA's purpose: Promote and preserve for historical, educational and literary purposes the role of women pilots, navigators and aircrew in the service of their country during times of war and peace.

We are dedicated to preserving the past so researchers, educators, the general public and our successors will know the true stories of military women aviators. Our endeavors include:

Images Courtesy of the TWU Libraries Woman’s Collection, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX

WASP Bee Haydu

was WMA’s first Historian, a job she held for over 20 years. Bee was passionate about preserving our history and diligently collected articles and other information to display in giant scrapbooks which she would bring via Rolls Royce to our biennial conventions. Over the years, her efforts resulted in 5 such books, each over 2 feet tall, proudly filled to capacity with photographs, articles, change of command programs and other memorabilia to illustrate our members’ activities.

The scrapbooks are now part of WMA’s archive at Texas Woman’s University and were digitized in their entirety to become an enduring and accessible part of our organizational collection.

As a woman military aviator you are already an important part of history. We invite you to document your journey by building your personal collection to archive at TWU and completing an oral history session. And if you want to do more, volunteer for the Historical Committee! We can use you help and expertise in many areas including editing oral history transcripts and creating inventories of items donated to our archives.

Preserving the Past is an on-going, never-ending operation. We will always remember Bee’s foresight and passion to tell the true and complete story of women military aviators. With your support, we are dedicated to leaving an enduring legacy.

WMA Historical Committee
Margie Varuska, Marcy Atwood, Ann Patrie
history@womenmilitaryaviators.org