For God, Country, and the Thrill of It: Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II

College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1990. First edition. First Editon [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good in good dust jacket. DJ has some wear, soiling, and rear flap creased.. Noggle, Anne. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. xi, [1], 160, [4] p. Illustrated. Occasional footnotes. Introduction by Dora Doubherty Strother. From the amazon website review by R. Chapulina: "Author Anne Noggle is a veteran of the Women's Air Service Pilots (WASP), organized during World War ll to free male aviators from non-combat duties. American women flew every type of fighter and bomber, from the nimble P-38 Lightning to the massive B-17 "Flying Fortress". They ferried warplanes from factory to front, and helped train young men in flying and targeting. And in September 1944, WASP Anne Baumgartner test-piloted the American prototype jet-fighter, the YP-59A Airacomet. This big, glossy book contains a brief history of the WASP and narrative of their training, accompanied by large, high-quality black-and-white photos of the youthful aviators and their airplanes. Their pride of service is evident in their smiling faces and the praise from military leaders such as Generals Arnold and Eisenhower. Their bittersweet sorrow at their post-war deactivation is described poignantly. They continue to meet annually, and the book concludes with a series of more recent photos of the women, as they appeared in the early 90's. Members of the WASP have attended as guest of honor at the yearly reunions of Russian female WWll combat-aviators." This is Number One of The Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Texas Photography Series. From Wikipedia: "Anne Noggle (1922-August 16, 2005) was an American aviator. She served as a WASP during World War II and made a career for herself as a photographer after the war. Noggle was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1922, and died Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 16, 2005 at the age of 83. She set a goal of becoming a pilot after seeing Amelia Earhart at an air show in Chicago. When she was 17, her mother, who was a bookstore manager, agreed to let her take flying lessons. At 21, Noggle traveled to Sweetwater, Texas, to attend training to become one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots(WASP). She graduated in the class of 44-W-1. She flew missions in 1943 and 1944. The WASP were disbanded in late 1944. After the war, she became a crop-duster in the Southwest and flew stunts in an aerial circus. When the Air Force offered commissions to former WASPs in 1953, she applied and was a pilot during the Korean War. She retired as a captain in 1959 when she developed emphysema. While in the Air Force, Noggle had been stationed in Paris. She visited the Louvre which ignited an artistic impulse. Back in the States, she enrolled at the University of New Mexico as an art history major. She earned a bachelor's degree in fine art in 1966 and a master's in 1969. Noggle went back to school and in 1969 graduated with a Masters in Art from the University of New Mexico. She developed her skills as a photographer and developed an interest in documenting the aging process of women including her own witty and challenging self-portraits. Noggle was Curator of Photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art from 1970-76. Noggle accepted a position of adjunct professor of Art at the University of New Mexico and taught there from 1970 to 1984. The Harn Museum at the University of Florida presented an exhibition of Noggle's photographs from June 26, 2012 to March 10, 2013. The title of the exhibition was "Anne Noggle: Reality and the Blind Eye of Truth." [8] Noggle's work is in the permanent collections of several art museums, including California Museum of Photography, Denver Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, New Mexico Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 1975 Noggle co-curated an exhibition and catalog for the San Francisco Museum of Art, Women of Photography: An Historical Survey. This exhibition was credited with introducing the work of American women photographers to a broader audience. She made portraits of her fellow WASPs as older women in the book For God, Country and the Thrill of It: Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II (1990). A.