Virtual event series highlights the upcoming documentary Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy honoring the Women Airforce Service Pilots
This Veterans Day, a new online event series is shining a spotlight on a group of pioneering aviators who helped win World War II but were nearly forgotten afterward.
They were the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. Between 1942 and 1944, more than a thousand women answered the call to fly military aircraft across the United States. They ferried fighters and bombers from factories to air bases, towed aerial gunnery targets for live-fire training, and even tested repaired aircraft before returning them to service. They did it all in the same cockpits as their male counterparts, often at personal risk, but without the rank, pay, or benefits of the US Army Air Forces.
Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy Captures the Stories of the Unsung Heroes of the Home Front
Although the WASP were officially considered civilians, their contributions freed thousands of male pilots to serve overseas. Thirty-eight of them lost their lives in the line of duty. When the program was disbanded in 1944, the women were sent home without military honors and were largely erased from wartime history.
It would take more than thirty years before their service was formally recognized. In 1977, Congress granted the WASP veteran status, and in 2009, they received the Congressional Gold Medal. Yet even today, few Americans know their story.
MORE ABOUT WASP:
- The Unshakable Valor of WASP Pilot and Airborne Heroine Shirley Slade
- How Jackie Cochran and the Lockheed JetStar Made Aviation History in 1961
Capturing Their Voices Before Time Runs Out
That is what drives filmmaker Matia Karrell, an Oscar-nominated director who has spent a decade documenting the stories of the women who flew. Her upcoming documentary, Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy, captures rare interviews with surviving WASP along with newly uncovered archives, journals, and letters.
Karrell and her producing partner, Hilary Prentice, set out to ensure that the WASP story is preserved in the voices of those who lived it. “We’re determined to get their story out to the next generation,” Karrell said in a statement announcing the project.
A Project Fueled by Determination
The film reached a critical stage in 2024 when the team began assembling the final cut. Like many independent documentary projects, Coming Home depends heavily on outside grants and sponsorships to cover production costs such as archival restoration, post-production editing, and distribution rights.
When one of their key funding sources fell through earlier this year, the filmmakers refused to let the project stall. Now, with production deadlines fast approaching, they need immediate support to keep the film alive. Through a crowdfunding campaign on Seed & Spark, Karrell and Prentice are urgently inviting donors and aviation enthusiasts to help bring the film across the finish line.
“Their contributions, so often erased, deserve to be etched into history with the recognition they so rightfully earned,” Karrell said, emphasizing that the goal is to make the WASP story accessible to classrooms, museums, and streaming audiences worldwide.
Taking the Mission Online
To maintain momentum, Karrell and Prentice have launched a virtual event series coinciding with Veterans Day. The events will feature clips from Coming Home, behind-the-scenes discussions with the filmmakers, and insights from aviation historians who advise the project.
The first virtual event takes place Monday, 10 November, 12:30–1:30 p.m. Eastern. The event supports the Seed & Spark campaign and offers participants film excerpts and insights into preserving the WASP story.
Remembering a Legacy
Unlike many wartime documentaries that rely heavily on narration, Coming Home is told entirely through the voices of those who were there. Their letters and diaries reveal courage, humor, and heartbreak as they took on roles few women had ever dreamed of.
From the controls of P-51 Mustangs and B-17 Flying Fortresses to the long ferry flights across the country, the WASP helped keep America’s air power moving at a crucial moment in history.
As the nation pauses to honor its heroes this Veterans Day, Karrell hopes her film will inspire viewers to look beyond the familiar names of wartime heroes and remember the women who made aviation history from behind the scenes.
To learn more about Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy, visit the project’s campaign page on Seed & Spark.
