[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 614 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.614

                      One Hundred Eleventh Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
             the sixth day of January, two thousand and nine


                                 An Act


 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots 
                               (``WASP'').

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
    Congress finds that--
        (1) the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII, known as the 
    ``WASP'', were the first women in history to fly American military 
    aircraft;
        (2) more than 60 years ago, they flew fighter, bomber, 
    transport, and training aircraft in defense of America's freedom;
        (3) they faced overwhelming cultural and gender bias against 
    women in nontraditional roles and overcame multiple injustices and 
    inequities in order to serve their country;
        (4) through their actions, the WASP eventually were the 
    catalyst for revolutionary reform in the integration of women 
    pilots into the Armed Services;
        (5) during the early months of World War II, there was a severe 
    shortage of combat pilots;
        (6) Jacqueline Cochran, America's leading woman pilot of the 
    time, convinced General Hap Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces, 
    that women, if given the same training as men, would be equally 
    capable of flying military aircraft and could then take over some 
    of the stateside military flying jobs, thereby releasing hundreds 
    of male pilots for combat duty;
        (7) the severe loss of male combat pilots made the necessity of 
    utilizing women pilots to help in the war effort clear to General 
    Arnold, and a women's pilot training program was soon approved;
        (8) it was not until August 1943, that the women aviators would 
    receive their official name;
        (9) General Arnold ordered that all women pilots flying 
    military aircraft, including 28 civilian women ferry pilots, would 
    be named ``WASP'', Women Airforce Service Pilots;
        (10) more than 25,000 American women applied for training, but 
    only 1,830 were accepted and took the oath;
        (11) exactly 1,074 of those trainees successfully completed the 
    21 to 27 weeks of Army Air Forces flight training, graduated, and 
    received their Army Air Forces orders to report to their assigned 
    air base;
        (12) on November 16, 1942, the first class of 29 women pilots 
    reported to the Houston, Texas Municipal Airport and began the same 
    military flight training as the male Army Air Forces cadets were 
    taking;
        (13) due to a lack of adequate facilities at the airport, 3 
    months later the training program was moved to Avenger Field in 
    Sweetwater, Texas;
        (14) WASP were eventually stationed at 120 Army air bases all 
    across America;
        (15) they flew more than 60,000,000 miles for their country in 
    every type of aircraft and on every type of assignment flown by the 
    male Army Air Forces pilots, except combat;
        (16) WASP assignments included test piloting, instructor 
    piloting, towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice, ground-
    to-air anti-aircraft practice, ferrying, transporting personnel and 
    cargo (including parts for the atomic bomb), simulated strafing, 
    smoke laying, night tracking, and flying drones;
        (17) in October 1943, male pilots were refusing to fly the B-26 
    Martin Marauder (known as the ``Widowmaker'') because of its 
    fatality records, and General Arnold ordered WASP Director, 
    Jacqueline Cochran, to select 25 WASP to be trained to fly the B-26 
    to prove to the male pilots that it was safe to fly;
        (18) during the existence of the WASP--
            (A) 38 women lost their lives while serving their country;
            (B) their bodies were sent home in poorly crafted pine 
        boxes;
            (C) their burial was at the expense of their families or 
        classmates;
            (D) there were no gold stars allowed in their parents' 
        windows; and
            (E) because they were not considered military, no American 
        flags were allowed on their coffins;
        (19) in 1944, General Arnold made a personal request to 
    Congress to militarize the WASP, and it was denied;
        (20) on December 7, 1944, in a speech to the last graduating 
    class of WASP, General Arnold said, ``You and more than 900 of your 
    sisters have shown you can fly wingtip to wingtip with your 
    brothers. I salute you . . . We of the Army Air Force are proud of 
    you. We will never forget our debt to you.'';
        (21) with victory in WWII almost certain, on December 20, 1944, 
    the WASP were quietly and unceremoniously disbanded;
        (22) there were no honors, no benefits, and very few ``thank 
    you's'';
        (23) just as they had paid their own way to enter training, 
    they had to pay their own way back home after their honorable 
    service to the military;
        (24) the WASP military records were immediately sealed, stamped 
    ``classified'' or ``secret'', and filed away in Government 
    archives, unavailable to the historians who wrote the history of 
    WWII or the scholars who compiled the history text books used 
    today, with many of the records not declassified until the 1980s;
        (25) consequently, the WASP story is a missing chapter in the 
    history of the Air Force, the history of aviation, and the history 
    of the United States of America;
        (26) in 1977, 33 years after the WASP were disbanded, the 
    Congress finally voted to give the WASP the veteran status they had 
    earned, but these heroic pilots were not invited to the signing 
    ceremony at the White House, and it was not until 7 years later 
    that their medals were delivered in the mail in plain brown 
    envelopes;
        (27) in the late 1970s, more than 30 years after the WASP flew 
    in World War II, women were finally permitted to attend military 
    pilot training in the United States Armed Forces;
        (28) thousands of women aviators flying support aircraft have 
    benefitted from the service of the WASP and followed in their 
    footsteps;
        (29) in 1993, the WASP were once again referenced during 
    congressional hearings regarding the contributions that women could 
    make to the military, which eventually led to women being able to 
    fly military fighter, bomber, and attack aircraft in combat;
        (30) hundreds of United States servicewomen combat pilots have 
    seized the opportunity to fly fighter aircraft in recent conflicts, 
    all thanks to the pioneering steps taken by the WASP;
        (31) the WASP have maintained a tight-knit community, forged by 
    the common experiences of serving their country during war;
        (32) as part of their desire to educate America on the WASP 
    history, WASP have assisted ``Wings Across America'', an 
    organization dedicated to educating the American public, with much 
    effort aimed at children, about the remarkable accomplishments of 
    these WWII veterans; and
        (33) the WASP have been honored with exhibits at numerous 
    museums, to include--
            (A) the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC;
            (B) the Women in Military Service to America Memorial at 
        Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia;
            (C) the National Museum of the United States Air Force, 
        Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio;
            (D) the National WASP WWII Museum, Sweetwater, Texas;
            (E) the 8th Air Force Museum, Savannah, Georgia;
            (F) the Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston, Texas;
            (G) the American Airpower Museum, Farmingdale, New York;
            (H) the Pima Air Museum, Tucson, Arizona;
            (I) the Seattle Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington;
            (J) the March Air Museum, March Reserve Air Base, 
        California; and
            (K) the Texas State History Museum, Austin, Texas.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
    (a) Award Authorized.--The President pro tempore of the Senate and 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall make appropriate 
arrangements for the award, on behalf of the Congress, of a single gold 
medal of appropriate design in honor of the Women Airforce Service 
Pilots (WASP) collectively, in recognition of their pioneering military 
service and exemplary record, which forged revolutionary reform in the 
Armed Forces of the United States of America.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award referred to 
in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury shall strike the gold 
medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be 
determined by the Secretary.
    (c) Smithsonian Institution.--
        (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal in honor 
    of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the gold medal shall be given 
    to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will be displayed as 
    appropriate and made available for research.
        (2) Sense of the congress.--It is the sense of the Congress 
    that the Smithsonian Institution shall make the gold medal received 
    under this Act available for display elsewhere, particularly at 
    other locations associated with the WASP.
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
    Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal 
struck under this Act, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the 
medals, including labor, materials, dyes, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses.
SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS.
    Medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes 
of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
    (a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, an 
amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medal 
authorized under section 2.
    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States 
Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.