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This collection consists of material chronicling Janice Christensen's Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) service.
Janice Christensen (1913 – 1965) started taking flying lessons at the Waukegan (Illinois) Airport in 1942, where she was also an original member of the Waukegan Civil Air Patrol. By March 1943, Christensen had completed 90 hours of flying time and was selected to join the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP). She left for training at Avenger Army Air Field in Sweetwater, Texas, graduating in class 43-W-5 on September 11, 1943. After graduation, Christensen was stationed at Romulus Army Air Field in Michigan until she returned to Avenger Field where she completed an advanced instrument flying course. She was then stationed at Cochran Army Air Field in Macon, Georgia, until the WASP program was disbanded in December 1944. After her WASP service, Christensen worked at the U.S. Airway Traffic Control Station in Chicago, at various weather stations in Ohio, and later worked as a laboratory and tissue technician at various hospitals. Christensen continued to be active in aviation, owning her own airplane, a single engine Taylorcraft, and was a member of the Civil Air Patrol. In 1949, she joined the Air Force Reserve with the rank of 1st Lieutenant; she received an honorable discharge with the rank of Captain on November 7, 1963. Christensen died in 1965 but in 1979, under Public Law 95-202, the WASPs received veteran's status.
NASM.2019.0050
Christensen, Janice
1943-1959
Dagmar Joyce Noll, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0050
0.48 Cubic feet (2 boxes)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of the following items chronicling Janice Christensen's Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) service: three 8mm films; March 1948 issue of The WASP Newsletter; 318th A.A.F.F.T.D. WASP Yearbook; WASP article in Life, July 19, 1943; WASP article in Liberty January 29, 1944; June 1945 WASP Roster; RON – Wasp Cartoon Scrapbook by Alice Jean May, 1947; 1955, and 1959 Membership Directories for the Ninety-Nines, Inc.; two copies of the 43-W-5 Graduation Dance invitation; "Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws of the Order of Fifinella" along with membership card; "Christensen's Pilots Qualifications Record, 1943-1944;" certificates of pilot and aircraft registrations, 1945 – 1949; Flight Instruction written exam results; photographs; newspaper clippings; correspondence and telegrams to Christensen relating to her WASP application and the US Civil service Commission; four aircraft Christmas cards; and one 11 by 13 inch wood scrapbook containing black and white and color snapshots of Janice Christensen and her WASP Service, including photographs of Christensen, her fellow WASPS, aircraft, and air fields.
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Janice Christensen Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) Collection, NASM.2019.0050, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Aeronautics, Military
World War, 1939-1945
Collection descriptions
Archival materials