Hope, Virginia Mae, 1921-1944.

Virginia Mae Hope was born August 17, 1921, the daughter of Robert Q. and Adaline A. Hope of Winnebago, Minnesota. Early in 1941, during a term at Northwestern University, she enrolled in a flight training course and obtained a pilot's license. In 1943 she enrolled in the Women's Air Service Pilots (WASP) and spent six months at its training camp in Sweetwater, Texas.

The WASP was part of the Army Air Forces' World War II civilian pilot recruitment program, instituted to free military pilots for combat duty. In September 1942, its Air Transport Command had created the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), made up of experienced pilots, and also initiated a women's pilots' training program. On August 5, 1943, these two programs were merged as the WASP, under the direction of Jaqueline Cochran. After completing their training, most WASPs were assigned to the Air Transport Command, their main task being to ferry aircraft and supplies from base to base in the United States, although they eventually participated in other service missions. The WASP was deactivated on December 20, 1944, when military victories freed male pilots for non-combat missions.

Virginia Hope was assigned to Army Air Forces Weather Wing, 69th AAF Base Unit, at Patterson Field, Fairfield, Ohio, in November 1943. The Weather Wing at that time supervised all weather units assigned to the Army Air Forces. Her duties included ferrying Weather Service personnel and planes on military missions.

In November 1944, she secured a position in Oklahoma City ferrying surplus army planes to civilian airports for resale. On December 7, 1944, she and 16 other pilots were killed in a plane crash at Omaha, Nebraska.

From the guide to the Virginia Mae Hope papers, 1941-1946., (Minnesota Historical Society)