Taking Flight

By Lily Connelly

Yvonne revisiting an AT-6 in 1993. (Source: Golden Transcript on coloradohistoricnewspapers.org)

Yvonne Wood’s WASP graduation photo, Wings Across America.

Yvonne Constance Wood

May 28, 1920 - January 7, 2007

As far back as she could remember, Yvonne was always interested in planes.[1 ] It may have stemmed from listening to her father Elvin’s stories about serving in World War I as an airplane mechanic for the Navy’s Aviation Flight Unit.[2 ] Maybe it was from hearing about her hero Charles Lindbergh’s first solo non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927.[3] Regardless of her inspiration, Yvonne was fascinated with flying.

Growing up in Big Timber, Montana, during the Depression was difficult, as money was tight for her parents, Hannah and Elvin, a schoolteacher and a hardware salesman.[4] Still, Elvin built Yvonne a toy plane by hanging an apple crate from a tree with boards nailed to it for a propeller, so Yvonne could pretend she was flying.[5] In the small ranching town, with a population just over 1,200 at the time, Yvonne and her younger brother Harold would fish in the two rivers on either side of the city or ride horses on the neighboring ranches.[6] She was the valedictorian of her high school class at Sweet Grass County High School.[7] She also met her first husband, Basil Ashcraft, in Montana, whom she would marry in 1937.[8]

To pursue her dream of flying, she enrolled in a Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPT) in Plentywood, Montana.[9] Yvonne won the girls’ scholarship available for the program.[10] In her oral history interview in 2004, she recalled the first plane ride she went on right before the training program started, “Thirty seconds in the air and I’d had it; that was it; that was what I had to do.”[11] She finished the program and got her private pilot’s license.[12] Before the war, Yvonne recalled that there weren’t many other female pilots at the time, so she felt like the odd one out, as women were rarely working or training as pilots.[13] She was in ground school, the first part of pilot training before flight school, at the start of World War II.[14] She obtained an instructor certificate to teach navigation, civil air regulations, and meteorology.[15]

Yvonne’s father, Elvin, returned to the Navy to serve in the war; her brother, Harold, would join the Navy in the last year of the war, and her first husband, Basil, joined the Army.[16] She was teaching at a flying school in Montana when she heard about the Women’s Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) program in 1943, applied for it and was accepted in May 1943.[17] So, Yvonne was off to the only WASP training station at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.[18]

The WASP program began when the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) run by renowned pilot Nancy Harkness Love, and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) run by famous pilot Jacqueline Cochran (the first woman to break the sound barrier and hold more flying records than any other male or female pilot), merged in 1943.[19] Cochran was the director of the WASP program, which had over 1,000 graduates during its short run.[20] The women who trained in Sweetwater learned everything male pilots learned except combat and aerobatics training; they learned non-combat roles so the men were free for combat.[21] WASPs test-flew and ferried planes, even ones damaged from combat or deemed unsafe for the men. They towed targets for aerial gunnery practice and performed administrative non-combat piloting roles.[22] Yvonne was in training from May to November 1943, and she graduated with Class 43-W-7, along with 58 other graduates.[23] Overall, the WASPs flew over 60 million miles and delivered 12,650 planes.[24]

The WASP Program had no ranks or medals like other branches.[25] However, Yvonne recalled in her interview that they gave out four custom watches engraved for outstanding achievements to the top four graduates, of which Yvonne was one, and she happily received the watch.[26] Yvonne’s first assignment was in Asheville, North Carolina, at the Weather Wing Headquarters.[27] The Weather Wing was the Air Force’s meteorological center for the military, and Yvonne spent a month there doing administrative piloting.[28] This meant she hauled non-flying officers around the country. Then she was sent to San Antonio, Texas, at Kelly Field. She was the only WASP there at the time.[29] She went to Orlando for Officer’s training and was then assigned to Moore Field in McAllen, Texas.[30] In McAllen, she towed targets behind her plane for the men to practice aerial gunnery on.[31] Yvonne was back in Sweetwater for advanced instrument training when she heard the program was being deactivated at the end of the year.[32] Her last assignment was at the San Marcos Army Air Force Base, carrying out administrative piloting tasks once more.[33] Yvonne flew in multiple kinds of planes, her favorite being the AT-6 ‘Texan,’ a two-seat single-engine airplane.[34] Yvonne accumulated over 400 flying hours by the end of her time as a Service Pilot.[35]

WASPs reported problems with male pilots ranging from insults, harassment, resentment, dangerous pranks, and even sabotage.[36] They were also given a military order to report to their training sergeants when they were menstruating; it was believed that it threw off their equilibrium and affected their performances, but some women refused the order.[37] Meanwhile, they were considered civilians and thus did not have access to military benefits or veteran status. The WASPs were the only women’s branch in the military not granted military status at that time.[38] In 1944, there was an attempt to militarize the WASPs as part of the Army Air Forces, but the bill failed.[39] Male pilots even lobbied against the bill, saying that it was a waste of resources and that women were replacing men’s jobs, so the program was quietly disbanded.[40]

Yvonne went to Omaha in late December of 1944 with a fellow former WASP, Alice Riss, right after the program deactivated.[41] She earned more instructors’ ratings to get hired as a pilot, and did odd flying jobs to get by.[42] She did more instruction, charter piloting, and ferry piloting.[43] She even participated in some barnstorming, otherwise known as flying circuses.[44] It was difficult to find a stable job as a female pilot, so Yvonne spent some time traveling around the country with a friend from home, applying for various pilot jobs while on their road trip.[45]

Yvonne divorced Basil in 1946 and went back to Big Timber that summer.[46] Then, she met World War II vet Arthur “Art” Wood on a blind date. Art was an engineer in the Army and a Pearl Harbor survivor, who had been contracted to help with some construction outside of town that summer.[47] They married in December 1947.[48] They were together until Arthur passed away in 1985.[49] Art was a School of Mines alumnus and loved Colorado, which brought them to Denver in 1948. They built their own house together and adopted two children, Jaqueline (named after Cochran) and Rex.[50] Yvonne then became devoted to being a housewife and mother. Rex passed away in 1998 from complications of diabetes.[51]

The WASPs made a reappearance in 1972, when the Air Force announced that they were accepting women into pilot training programs, so it was reported that these women would be the first female pilots in the Air Force.[52] Many of the former WASPs were upset by this announcement because they felt their contributions had been erased.[53] This started a five-year battle for recognition. Despite obstacles and even opposition from some veteran groups, in 1977, veteran status and benefits were signed into law for the WASPs, so Yvonne and other pilots were retroactively given honorable discharges.[54] Their newfound recognition also helped them receive World War II Victory Medals in 1984.[55] Lastly, in 2009, the WASPs were awarded the Congressional Medal.[56] Sadly, this was after Yvonne passed in 2007.[57]

As far as getting recognition for the WASPS, for decades after her service, Yvonne kept in touch with fellow former Service Pilots and told her story alongside them.[58] She attended some reunions and spoke at events about her experiences, even at an event sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Academy.[59] She attended an event for a class of female cadets and WASP veterans for a premiere of the documentary “Women of Courage” about the WASPs’ contributions during WWII.[60] She met with women in the Colorado chapter of the International Organization of Women Pilots, and she spoke at Tale Spinners events, an aviation club, throughout the nineties.[61] At these events, she revisited their service experience and supposed that, at the time, she didn’t feel like she was making history, but looking back, the WASPs opened the door for countless other female pilots.[62] Overall, despite the obstacles she dealt with during and after her time as a Service Pilot, Yvonne was proud of her service, enjoyed her experiences flying, and felt that the WASP program had changed her life.[63] Yvonne Wood passed away on January 7th, 2007, and is buried with her husband, Arthur.[64]

Footnotes ↓

[1] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman Lakewood, Colorado, October 27, 2004, WASP Oral History Project, from the personal archive of Yvonne Wood WASP Biofile, in the Women Airforce Service Pilot Official Archive, located at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, courtesy of Archivist, July 31, 2025.

[2] Yvonne Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood: Denver Colorado,” in Out of the Blue and Into History ed. Betty Stagg Turner (Aviatrix Publishing, 2001), from the personal archive of Yvonne Wood WASP Biofile, in the Women Airforce Service Pilot Official Archive, located at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, courtesy of Archivist, July 31, 2025; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[3] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[4] “1930 United States Federal Census,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Elvin J Husebye; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[5] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[6] Ibid.; “City of Big Timber, Montana Homepage,” City of Big Timber, accessed August 2025, https://cityofbigtimber.com/; “Montana Census 1790-1920,” Census.gov, accessed August 2025, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1920/state-compendium/06229686v20-25ch5.pdf, p. 22.

[7] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; excerpt from The Billings Gazette, January 5, 1948, accessed August 2025, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/414366205/.

[8] “Montana, U.S., Divorce Records, 1943-1988,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Yvonne Ashcraft; “1930 United States Federal Census,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Basil C Ashcraft.

[9] Gerald White, “WASPs make weather history,” Heartlander, from the personal archive of Yvonne Wood WASP Biofile, in the Women Airforce Service Pilot Official Archive, located at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, courtesy of Archivist, July 31, 2025; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[10] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood.”; White, “WASPS make weather history”; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[13] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[14] Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood”; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[15] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[16] Ibid.; “U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Basil Conway Ashcraft; “Tiny ‘Wasp’ Blithely Pilots Giant Planes,” The Flying Times, April 15, 1944, from the personal archive of Yvonne Wood WASP Biofile, in the Women Airforce Service Pilots Official Archive, located at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, courtesy of Archivist, July 31, 2025.

[17] Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood.”

18] “Tiny ‘WASP’ Pilots Planes”; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; White, “WASPS make weather history”; “Certificate of Discharge from Active Duty,” July 1, 1979, from the personal archive of Yvonne Wood WASP Biofile, in the Women Airforce Service Pilot Official Archive, located at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, courtesy of Archivist, July 31, 2025.

[19] Haley Guepet, “WASP: Women Airforce Service Pilots,” The National WWII Museum, May 7, 2025, accessed August 2025, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/wasp-women-airforce-service-pilots; White, “WASPS make weather history.”

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.; “Tiny ‘WASP’ Pilots Planes.”

[22] Guepet, “WASPs.”

[23] Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood”; “WASP Class 43-W-7 Graduates,” WAFS & WASP Class of 1943, Women Airforce Service Pilots Official Archive, located at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, accessed August 2025, https://twu.edu/library/womans-collection/collections/women-airforce-service-pilots-official-archive/research/training-classes/wafs--wasp-class-of-1943/wasp-class-43-w-7/.

[24] “WASP History,” Women Airforce Service Pilots Official Archive, Texas Woman’s University, accessed August 2025, https://twu.edu/library/womans-collection/collections/women-airforce-service-pilots-official-archive/history/.

[25] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[26] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; “Special Awards Go To Four WASPs,” The Paris News, November 14, 1943, accessed August 2025, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/17270819/?pqsid=8_FO1rXsQjaSRb7ONVLGsA%3A64819%3A1907869845.

[27] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood.”

[28] Ibid.; “557th Weather Wing,” Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), accessed August 2025, https://www.16af.af.mil/About-Us/Unit-Fact-Sheets/Article/2004918/557th-weather-wing/.

[29] Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood.”; “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; “Tiny ‘WASP’ Pilots Planes”; White, “WASPs make weather history.”

[30] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; Wood, “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood.”

[31] Ibid.

[32] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid.

[35] “Tiny ‘WASP’ Pilots Planes.”

[36] Guepet, “WASPs”; Susan Howlett, “Pilots,” Above and Beyond, October 2, 1966, The Portal to Texas History, courtesy of the National WASP WWII Museum, accessed August 2025, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1296391/m1/3/.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Guepet, “WASPs.”

[39] Ibid.

[40] Ibid.

[41] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Ibid.

[45] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[46] Ibid.; “Montana Divorce Records,” ancestry.com.

[47] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; “Yvonne Ashcraft Wood, 43-W-7,” Wings Across America, February 12, 2007, accessed August 2025, https://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/web/wood_yvonne.htm.

[48] Excerpt from The Billings Gazette; “Montana, U.S., Marriage Records, 1943-1988,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Yvonne Husebye.

[49] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[50] Ibid.

[51] Ibid.; “Yvonne Wood, 43-W-7.”

[52] Howlett, “Pilots.”

[53] Ibid.

[54] Andrew T. Wackerfuss, “Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP),” Air Force Historical Support Division, accessed August 2025, https://www.afhistory.af.mil/FAQs/Fact-Sheets/Article/458964/womens-airforce-service-pilots-wasp/; Howlett, “Pilots”; “Discharge from Active Duty.”

[55] Wackerfuss, “Women’s Service Pilots (WASP).”

[56] “A History of the Women Airforce Service Pilots,” National WASP WWII Museum, accessed August 2025, https://waspmuseum.org/history/; Guepet, “WASPs.”

[57] “U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Yvonne C. Wood.

[58] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; “What’s Happening,” Summit Daily News, October 4, 1997, accessed August 2025, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=SDN19971004-01.2.51&srpos=9&e=--1925---2016--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Yvonne+Wood%22-ILLUSTRATION------2------/

[59] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman; “WASPs are recognized,” Golden Transcript, June 17, 1993, accessed August 2025, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=GOT19930617-01.2.45&srpos=7&e=--1925---2016--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Yvonne+Wood%22-ILLUSTRATION------2------.

[60] “WASPs are recognized.”

[61] “Community groups: Ninety-Nines,” The Broomfield Enterprise, November 3, 1944, accessed August 2025, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=BRE19941103-01.2.76&srpos=12&e=--1925---2016--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Yvonne+Wood%22-ARTICLE------2------; Kim Marquis, “Female WWII pilots paved way for later aviatrixes,” Summit Daily News, October 10, 1997, accessed August 2025, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=SDN19971010-01.2.16&srpos=10&e=--1925---2016--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Yvonne+Wood%22-ILLUSTRATION------2------.

[62] Marquis, “Female WWII pilots paved way.”

[63] “Yvonne Wood,” interview by Sarah Rickman.

[64] “Social Security Death Index,” entry for Yvonne C. Wood; “U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current,” ancestry.com, accessed August 2025, entry for Yvonne Constance Wood.