Frank Wade's Memorabilia, Whitney, Texas

Frank Wade has been collecting memorabilia for many, many years. At 91 years old, he welcomes groups to come and view his collection. It is not open to the public -- he has too many antiques that could be worth a great deal of money, so he is very selective as to who is allowed to come. His collection resides in a very unassuming green building with a stone sculpture of the Baylor Bear out front.

National WASP WWII Museum, Sweetwater, Texas

The WASP program ran from September 1942 to December 1944. The objective of the program was to see if women could serve as military pilots to release male pilots for combat flying and to decrease the Air Force’s total demand on the manpower pool. The program was under the Civil Service Commission with civilian trainees. The National WASP WWII Museum tells the story of the women who made it through the program.

There were 25,000 women who applied, but only 3,000 had their pilot’s license. Of these, 1,830 women were accepted after they met the criteria and passed a physical. In less than 2 years under Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love’s supervision, 1,102 WASP flew over 60 million miles in every type aircraft in the Army Air Corps arsenal.