Maggie Gee and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP): Maggie Gee

Maggie Gee passed away on Friday, February 1, 2013 at the age of 89.

Maggie's legacy will live on in the lives of all of those she educated and changed with her passionate patriotism and her extraordinary sense of social justice.

      - Nancy Parrish

Maggie Gee was a guest speaker at LPC

Date:  Thur, November 10, 2011

Time: 10:30 - 11:30

Place: Mertes Center for the Arts

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Maggie Gee was a freshman at the University of California at Berkeley.  To contribute to the war effort, she quit school and worked as a draftsperson for the military, but that wasn't enough for Maggie.  She and two friends decided to go to flight school with the hopes of joining the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and fighting for their country.  They pooled their money, bought a car for $25, and headed for Texas. 

When Maggie graduated from the tough course of training, she was one of only two Chinese Americans in the WASP.  She was stationed in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she helped train other pilots-both male and female.  After the government disbanded the WASP, Maggie went back to school.  She joined the army in the 1950s, running service clubs in Germany during the height of the Cold War.  Later she became a physicist, working for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory until she retired.  Today, Maggie is active in local politics and continues to meet regularly with her WASP friends. 

Excerpted from Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee by Marissa Moss

Berkeley Woman Was One of the First Females to Fly Military Airplanes from City of Oakland/Oakland Tribune

WWII WASP Pilot Maggie Gee Interview by Contra Cost Times (YouTube)

Sky High Discussed by Maggie Gee & Carl Angel at Eastwind (YouTube)

Military's First Flying Women Honored for WWII Service on PBS NewsHour - Maggie Gee in the segment at 3:18 (VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED BY THE CONTENT OWNERS; TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE)