Virginia Streeter Cutler
November 10, 1913 – December 11, 1978
Class: 43-W-5
Dates: March 26, 1943-September 11, 1943
Number of Trainees: 124 trainees, 85 graduates
Training Location: Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas
This was the first class to enter and complete all their training at Avenger Field.
Assigned Bases: South Plains Army Air Base (Lubbock, Tex.), Enid Army Air Base (Okla.), and Eagle Pass Army Air Base (Tex.)
Planes flown: BT-13, BT-15, PT-19, AT-6, and C-60
Streeter was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on November 10, 1913 and showed an interest in aviation at a young age. On August 11, 1943, she graduated with the fifth class of women pilots training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, and as a WASP, served as a ferry pilot in the Army Air Transport Command (ATC), directed by Jackie Cochran.
She first started flying in 1941 after leaving her job as a dietician at the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to spend the summer at home in Cedar Falls. While there, she was admitted into the local civilian pilot training course at Livingston Field and gained enough flying time to achieve the thirty-five hours necessary for acceptance to train at Avenger Field. On June 24, 1945, she married naval officer Frank Ross Cutler in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and settled in Long Beach, CA. She died December 11, 1978 and is buried at Fairview Cemetery, Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Sources:
San Diego Air and Space Museum
Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas
