March is Women's History Month. In 1942, the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) took the unheard-of step of forming and employing two women's aviation units. That same year, a unit of flight nurses who had not yet quite finished their training, were sent into North Africa on Christmas Day following the Allied invasion in November of that year. In mid-1942, an increased need for World War II combat pilots favored the use of experienced women pilots to fly aircraft on non-combat missions. Two women's aviation units were created to ease this need. These two units were merged into a single group, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program in August 1943. For more information on the history of women in the Air Force, read the article on the Air Force website.