The National WASP WWII Museum
The National WASP WWII Museum seeks to educate and inspire all generations with the story of the WASP: Women Airforce Service Pilots – the first women to fly American’s military aircraft – women who forever changed the role of women in aviation!
The museum is conveniently located just minutes off Interstate 20 at 210 Loop 170 in Sweetwater, Texas. Pilots flying over Sweetwater can land at Avenger Field – the Sweetwater Airport (SWW). The museum is a short distance away. For assistance with directions or in setting up special tours, call 325.235.0099.
Regular days and hours of operation are Wednesday through Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
News and Events
Run for the WASP
Lace up your Nikes or tighten your Velcro for the first ever Run for the WASP 5K race/1.3 mile walk benefiting the National WASP WWII Museum. The starting gun will fire at 1:00 pm on Saturday, November 13th for participants in seven male and female categories.
Cost is $25 per person/$20 for students and military personnel. Cost on race day is $25 for any runner or walker.
Register here: www.timingspecialist.com/register/index.php?event_id=1279306255
The Museum will be open for participants and their families as well as other visitors. Special guests will include active-duty Air Force pilots and hopefully, a WASP, who will be available for autographs and pictures. Watch for a fly-over by a WWII airplane at the start of the race.
Timing Specialists of Big Spring will provide expert timing. Awards for the overall male and female runner and the seven classes in ten year age groups will be given shortly after the race’s end.
Enjoy a flat and fast course around the Sweetwater Texas State Technical College (TSTC) campus or the walk from the Museum to the WASP wishing well, located on the TSTC campus.
New Jacqueline Cochran Exhibit
Our new Jacqueline Cochran exhibit reveals her (see bio) connections with the movers and shakers of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Her marriage to Floyd Odlum, a lawyer and industrialist who also held a major stake in RKO Films, set her in a circle of friends that included Walt Disney, Bob Hope, the Rat Pack, and Clark Gable, as well as Chuck Yeager and Amelia Earhart. Jackie and Floyd entertained Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy at their ranch.
Exhibit donor Geneva Gordon-Derr and Jacqueline Cochran became friends in the Hollywood social scene. Geneva’s husband, the mayor of Riverside, served as the Director of Parks and Recreation with Disneyland within his realm of authority. Geneva stood in for Jackie at events on occasion, even wearing her medals when representing her. Geneva sang on some of Bob Hope’s USO tours, too. Jacqueline Cochran’s interest in beauty products through her cosmetic line and the fact that Geneva Gordon-Derr was a beautiful model also brought them together.
The National WASP World War II Museum greatly appreciates this gift by Geneva Gordon-Derr and James Adams.
WASP Homecoming 2010
Special Thanks to…
Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce
Wal-Mart
Creative Graphic Solutions
Dyess Air Force Base Personnel
Brookshires Food Store
Longhorn Liquor
Jack’s Liquor
Higginbotham-Bartlett Co.
State Representative Susan King
Sweetwater Floral
Sweetwater Reporter News
Sweetwater Woman’s Forum
Sweetwater Machine & Welding
Sweetwater Municipal Band
All of our Great Volunteers
Sponsors for Homecoming 2010
Gold Medal Sponsors
Dodge Jones Foundation
Lawrence Brothers
McCoy’s Funeral Home
Texas National Bank
Silver Medal Sponsors
Altezza, Inc.
Van Baucum Real Estate
Bennett & Associates
Jeannette & Loren Bryant
Carol & John Paul Cain
Cox Jewelry
Kathy Dickson
First Financial Bank
Peter Fox
Linda & Bill Hunter
JoAnne & Marvin Keenan
Kathy & Allen King
Ludlum Measurements
Mustang Tire
Rolling Plains Hospital
Sandra Spears
Beth & Homer Taylor
Texas State Technical College
Micki Wright & Sharron Davis
Thank You WASP for Coming Home
to
Avenger Field
Meriem Anderson 44-4 Jean McCreery 44-10
Marie Shelton Bray 44-4 Betty Jo Streff Reed 44-7
Edna Modisette Davis 43-5 Florence “Shutsy” Reynolds 44-5
Mary Helen Chapman Foster 44-3 Flora Belle Smith Reece 44-4
Eleanor “Gundy” Gunderson 44-7 Mary Alice Putnam Vandeventer 44-7
Ann Morgan Hazzard 43-7 Pauline Cutler White 44-5
Elaine Harmon 44-9 Lucille Doll Wise 44-7
Dot Swain Lewis 44-5 “Marty” Martin Wyall 44-10
Lillian Lorraine Yonally 43-7
