Family of female WWII pilot donates artifacts to museum

NEW ORLEANS – The family of a woman who flew military planes to help the World War II effort has donated her artifacts to a New Orleans museum that commemorates the war.

At a ceremony Tuesday, the National WWII Museum says Dorothy Mann’s family donated mementos such as her flight suit, dog tags and insignia, her leather flight jacket and her pilot’s kneeboard — a clipboard used by pilots for notes and charts.

Mann, of Plaska, Texas, was a WASP. That stands for Woman Air Force Service Pilots. They would ferry planes to air bases, or flight test repaired airplanes.

Mann left her university studies to get her pilot’s license and log the flight hours she needed so she could apply for the WASP program on the day she turned 21.