WHITFIELD: Finally getting their due. Some of the forgotten heroes of World War II are being honored today in Washington. We're talking about the WASPs. CNN's Jessica Yellin explains.

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JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): From the time she was eight, Jane Tedeschi wanted to be a pilot.

JANE TEDESCHI, FORMER PILOT: That was Lindberg flying across the Atlantic and a lot of other people were flying air races.

YELLIN: As a young woman in her 20s, Tedeschi sought out flight lessons and got her pilot's license, a rarity for a woman in those days. With World War II gripping the nation, male pilots were desperately needed overseas for battle. Female aviator, Jacqueline Cochran, came up with a radical idea, let female pilots take over domestic missions. The military approved, and WASP, Women Air Service Pilots program was born.

TEDESCHI: I thought this was something I could do and love to do and will contribute to the war effort.

YELLIN: Another of the 11,002 members was Deanie Parrish. One of her jobs was to help train gunners for combat.

DEANIE PARRISH, FORMER PILOT: It was not that I was going to do any more than anybody else, because there were other females who were driving ambulances or fire trucks, working on airplanes, and I was doing the one thing that I felt I could do best.

YELLIN: The WASP were civilians, but they were the first women to fly in U.S. military planes, in all logging over 60 million miles in all types of aircraft, from heavy bombers to attack planes.

TEDESCHI: Night flying occasionally was an interesting thing, because we didn't have an awful lot of training in that and you've got to be sure you never lose your horizon.

YELLIN: Although the work was confined to the home front, Air Force Major Nicole Malikowski (ph), the first female Thunderbird pilot says these women developed key tactics and training for the war.

MAJ. NICOLE MALIKOWSKI, AIR FORCE: These women did that by training the men to fly these planes so they could fly in combat. They did that by being instructor pilots, they were test pilots, they also did aerial gunnery.

TEDESCHI: It shows how happy we were to be flying.

YELLIN: Now with fewer than 300 of the pilots still alive, today the nation is recognizing their legacy.

TEDESCHI: It is an historical fact and should be recognized.

WHITFIELD:他们终于得到了自己应得的尊重。第二次世界大战期间一些被遗忘的英雄今天在华盛顿受到嘉奖。我们所说的是WASPs（女空勤飞行员）。CNN记者Jessica Yellin为我们详细解释一下。

JESSICA YELLIN，CNN全国政治记者：从8岁的时候开始，Jane Tedeschi就想成为一名飞行员。

JANE TEDESCHI，曾经的飞行员：那时候Lindberg飞越大西洋，许多其他人也进行空中飞行竞赛。

YELLIN：作为一名20多岁的年轻女孩，Tedeschi参加了飞行课程，获得了飞行执照，对于那个年代的女性来说，这是非常稀少的。由于全国卷入第二次世界大战，国外亟需男飞行员参加战斗。女飞行员Jacqueline Cochran提出了一个激进的想法，让女飞行员担负起国内任务。军方同意了该想法，女空勤飞行员就此诞生了。

TEDESCHI：我认为这是我能做，也喜欢做的事，而且能够为战争作出贡献。

YELLIN：女空勤飞行员共有11,000人，其中的另外一人是Deanie Parrish。她的工作职责之一是帮助训练战争中的枪手。

DEANIE PARRISH，曾经的飞行员：并不是我要比其他人做的多，因为其他女性也在驾驶救护车或救火车，或者在飞机上工作，所以我就选择了一种我认为自己可以做到最好的工作。

YELLIN：女性空勤飞行员都是平民，但是她们是第一批在美国军事飞机上飞行的女性，她们在各式各样的飞机上总共飞行了6000万英里，从轰炸机到歼击机。

TEDESCHI：偶尔的夜间飞行是很有趣的，因为我们不必进行大量的训练，你必须确保自己不会迷失方向。

YELLIN：尽管她们的工作限于国内，第一位雷鸟飞机女飞行员，空军少校Nicole Malikowski却表示，这些女性为战争提供了关键的战略和训练。

空军少校NICOLE MALIKOWSKI：这些女性训练男飞行员飞行，这样他们就可以在战斗中飞行。她们还担任飞行教员，试验飞行员，还进行空中射击。

TEDESCHI：这表明了我们在飞行过程中多么快乐。

YELLIN：现在，这批飞行员中依然在世者已经不足300人。今天，国家认可了她们的贡献。

TEDESCHI：这是历史性的事实，应该得到认可。