WASP Class 43-W-8
Dates: July 5, 1943-December 17, 1943
Number of Trainees: 98 trainees, 48 graduates
Place: Gymnasium, Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas
Prior graduations had been held on the Flight Line with a reviewing stand for the dignitaries. The Graduating Class was seated on the ramp and the trainees stood in formation during the ceremony. Since completion of the new gymnasium coincided with the arrival of winter, Class 43- W- 8 had the first indoor graduation ceremony this was also the first ceremony to be held in the evening, thus making it necessary to dispense with the review of trainees.
Graduation Speaker: Colonel Norman B. Olson, Commanding Officer, South Plains Army Air Field, Lubbock, Texas
Master of Ceremonies: Lieutenant Patrick B. McAnany, Intelligence Officer, 318th AAFFTD Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas
Wings: The official WASP wings were awarded for the first time
Graduates
Trainees
Adams, Lucile N.
Ailstock, Lucie H.
Baughman, Betty
Blair, Madylon Heard
Brown, Annabel R. Shaum
Calick, Ruth A.
Creticos, Mary
Crowley, Rose G.
Davis, Doris A. Mays
Deos, Doyne E. Brown
Dick, Helen R.
Dumas, Ces Rose
Durrah, Helen B.
Finger, Constance P.
Gatheman, Joan
Hastings, Gladys N. B.
>Horn, Jerry Williamson
Kolero, Katherine J.
Langdon, Joicey Faye Wood
Lawrence, Kathryn Barbara
Long, Olga V.
Lyons, Virginia M. Grugan
McCormick, Helene Huff
McHugh, Louise
Samsel, Dorothy T.
Sayles, Amie H. Thyng
Scholey, Helen May
Seamans, Vera M.
Smythe, Pansy
Stark, Bette Pratt
Stortz, Irene Elizabeth Kuhn
Stout, Virginia S.
Tally, Mary D.
Torge, Helen May
Updike, Alice Chilcoat
Walls, Eleanor M. Olsen Weems
Werner, Maxine M.
Wilkins, Sylvia
Winfrey, Onita Lee