JEAN LANDIS WASP PILOT

2,500 Miles … Long Beach to Newark in a P-51

Last Saturday, July 16, the WASP World War II Museum “Zoomed” a Texas-style get-together down in Sweetwater! We paid tribute to an outstanding WASP – Jean Landis, Class 43-4. And we launched “her” book!

A pursuit ferry pilot, as the title says, Jean flew those swift P-51 Mustangs from the airbase at Long Beach Airport in California, to the docks at Newark, New Jersey. From there, those hi-performance fighters were shipped abroad to fight the Germans.

“I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat,” says Jean of her cherished time as a WASP in World War II.

ZOOM Book Launch Links Friends and Family

Zoom-casting from the stirring new WASP Museum itself, we in the conference room connected via a BIG screen with friends of the WASP from around the USA. They all tuned in to say “Hi” to Jean. Yes, Jean herself joined us and that made our get-together a huge success!

Jean on the wing of Chuck Hall’s modified P-51, ‘Six Shooter’ (2010)

Jean, now 103, is one of the seventeen remaining WASP. She and her great nephew and his wife – Devin and Jeanne Scott – joined us from the retirement facility where Jean lives. Huge thank you’s to Jeanne and Devin for providing us with film clips of Jean from their 2010 documentary about her, She Wore Silver Wings.

Also present via Zoom were a number of Jean’s relatives, young and older alike. They were a joy to see and meet and they seemed really pleased to be there celebrating with her. In addition, some of Jean’s fellow residents at the Senior facility were in attendance as well.

Jean Landis – Flight Leader, Dedicated Teacher

The story of the WASP is universal in its appeal. Jean Landis, a teacher her entire adult life – other than her twenty-two-month stint in the WASP – dedicated her life to the education of young women. Just out of college, she taught at the high school from which she graduated and, after the WASP, she taught at several different colleges. Always a leader, while in training at Sweetwater, 24-year-old Jean Landis was named Flight Leader of her class. The 112 women who graduated in class 43-4 was the largest of the eighteen WASP classes.

Jean Landis WASP Pilot is this author’s fifth book in a series of biographies of these outstanding WASP “ferry pilots”. The books are written at a level called “Young Adult” because they are intended for today’s young women who fall anywhere between the ages of 10 and 16 – necessarily a broad spectrum of reading ability and interest. But since this author refuses to write “down” to these young women, the books are good reads for adults as well. They simply aren’t as dense as adult books, as detailed or as wordy, and there is no bad language – other than the rare “damn” that is an actual quote from a WASP herself.

Jean with her copy of Sarah’s second YA WASP book, Nancy Love WASP Pilot

The WASP Museum Book Store there in Sweetwater is my best customer. They carry all my books – now numbering twelve. And to let you in on a secret, number thirteen is in the works!

Heartfelt Thanks to the WASP Museum

My thanks to executive director Lisa Taylor as well as to Ann Haub and Justin Hesterly and the entire staff of the WASP World War II Museum and to my marketing manager Mary Walewski who traveled from Colorado to Sweetwater with me for this awesome book launch!!!

Hope you’ll consider reading Jean Landis WASP Pilot – 2,500 Miles … Long Beach to Newark in a P-51. I think you’ll like it!

“And thanks for reading all my WASP books.” You can see them here.