Wings of the Wasp

Desperate for pilots to fight overseas in World War 2, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was formed and volunteered to take over domestic military flying duties. Not everyone was pleased to see women enter into this man’s world. In 1943 at a base near Tucson, Arizona, aircraft mechanic Sergeant Joe Clark was ordered to create an ‘incident’ to discredit a WASP. The minor incident went awry, killing the woman pilot, driving Joe to despair. Joe was transferred to a remote base in Alaska to keep him quiet for the duration of the war. Returning and meeting up with Dawn Dunham, a WASP he met in Marana, they decided to expose the campaign of sabotage. After perpetrators discovered their efforts, Dawn was murdered. The hunt was on for Joe. After forty years in hiding, eighty-year-old Joe returns to Tucson. The nightmares are back, and he confesses to another WASP, Sylvia James. They resolve to expose this plot and those responsible.

In World War 2, the Women Airforce Service Pilots volunteered to take over the domestic flying duties for the military so male pilots could fight overseas. Some considered this an incursion into the male dominated world of flying. In order to show these women were incompetent, Aircraft mechanic Sargent Joe Clark sabotages an AT-6 trainer plane under orders from his CO. The minor incident goes awry, and the woman is killed. Joe is devastated and is deployed to a remote site to keep him quiet. After the war, he returns to the States, and with Dawn Dunham, a WASP he met at the Marana Army Airfield, resolve to reveal this plot. The conspirators find out and Dawn is murdered. The hunt is on for Joe. He goes into hiding. He returns to Tucson after forty years and with another WASP again goes after the murders.

In a departure from his science fiction trilogy, The Evolution River Series, Robert Clayton, has written a thrill packed historical novel based on an episode that happened to his mother, Sylvia Dahmes Clayton (WASP Class 43-W5). In this story, we get a picture of the women who made up the WASP and their life. Robert has lived in Tucson, Arizona for more than fifty years. He is enjoying his new career as a writer.