The San Diego Air & Space Museum is home to extensive information about the Woman's Air Service Pilots (WASP), the ground breaking group that ferried aircraft for the United States during the World War II.  The Virginia Streeter personal papers provide unique insight into the day-to-day life as of a WASP.  Streeter was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on November 10, 1913 and showed an interest in aviation at a young age. On August 11, 1943, she graduated with the fifth class of women pilots training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, and as a WASP, served as a ferry pilot in the Army Air Transport Command (ATC), directed by Jackie Cochran.

Streeter in the cockpit of a primary trainer at Avenger Field.

Streeter (far right) with some of her classmates at Avenger Field.

She first started flying in 1941 after leaving her job as a dietician at the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to spend the summer at home in Cedar Falls. While there, she was admitted into the local civilian pilot training course at Livingston Field and gained enough flying time to achieve the thirty-five hours necessary for acceptance to train at Avenger Field. On June 24, 1945, she married naval officer Frank Ross Cutler in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and settled in Long Beach, CA. She died December 11, 1978 and is buried at Fairview Cemetery, Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Streeter at a WASP reunion in 1948.  The WASP mascot was Fifinella (below), which was designed by Walt Disney.

The WASPs were inducted into the Museum's International Air and Space Hall of Fame in 2009.  Click here to find out more and view a video on them.