Pat Pateman

Women's Airforce Service Pilots

Lt. Col. Yvonne “Pat” Patemen entered the Army Air Forces in 1943 and earned her wings as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). She was the only WASP to have served in three wars (World War II, Korea, and Vietnam) and retired in 1971 after 22 years as a U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer.

In May 1989, Lt. Gen. A. P. Clark (USAF, Ret.), then president of The Friends, accepted the Pateman Collection for presentation to the Air Force Academy and the McDermott Library.

Lt Col Pateman's collection is one of the most comprehensive collections regarding the history of the WASP. It consists of correspondence, reports, personal narratives, oral histories, photographs and printed matter related to the history of the WASP during World War II, as well as their post- war struggle for acknowledgement and benefits.

 

Pat Pateman, Class 43-5 book picture,
in A-2 jacket with Fifi patch.

Selections from the Collection

Fifinella

Color print of Fifinella, used by the WASPs as their official mascot. Copyright, Walt Disney. Displayed by the 319th AAFFTD (Army Air Field Flying Training Detachment), Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas.

Class 43-5 Trainees

Avenger Field, 1943. (Rear, Left to Right): Weatherby, Croxton. (Front): Cox, Modisette, Pateman, and Ebersbach.

Pat Pateman

At Avenger Field, 1943, in winter flying gear in front of AT-19 aircraft.

Jackie Cochran

(Center, in Black) At Avenger Field, May 1943, at the wishing well with graduates of Class 43-2.

 

Graduation

Class 43-2 on 28 May 1943, Avenger Field.

 

Official WASP Wings

 

 

Pat Pateman

On leave, while assigned to Romulus Air Base, Michigan, visiting her brother Marine Sgt Allen Pateman, just returned from the Green Islands in the Pacific. New Jersey, 1944.