Alberta Hunt Nicholson was one of only 1,074 women who earned her wings flying for the prestigious Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II.
When the Baker City, Oregon native and University of Utah graduate became interested in aviation, she raised money for flying lessons during the summer break teaching elementary-school students.
When the United States entered World War II and established the WASPs, Nicholson was already an experienced pilot and courageously answered her country’s call. She was accepted for training at Avenger 
Field in Sweetwater, Texas. Of the 25,000 women who applied to become WASPs, only 1,800 were accepted. WASPs flew noncombat missions ferrying planes from the factories to training bases, took airplanes on test flights and towed targets so young pilots could practice shooting targets. By the end of the war, the WASPs had flown over 60 million miles. Nicholson was assigned to Williams Field in Arizona where she served as an engineering test pilot, making sure planes were safe for Air Force cadets.
After the war, Nicholson went to Germany where she served as administrative assistant to the Chief of Civil Aviation for the Allied High Commission for Occupied Germany (HICOG) in the U.S. State Department. Upon returning to the U.S., she taught piano at the University of Utah, gave flying lessons, and flew competitively in eight Women’s Transcontinental Air Races. In 1952, she turned her talents to helping patients at the Veterans Administration in Salt Lake City, where she worked as a recreational therapist for 25 years.
Nicholson stayed active in the affairs of the WASPs and the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women’s pilots organized by Amelia Earhart. She continued to fly into her 70s. In 2001, at the age of 87, Nicholson became the first woman inducted into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame. You can see her picture along with two of her uniforms at Hill Aerospace Museum. Nicholson died June 25, 2002 at her home in Salt Lake City.
The WASPs were deactivated in 1944 and women did not fly again for the military until 1977. In 2009, President Obama signed a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the women of WASP.