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Women in the Air Force (WAF) was a program which served to bring women into limited roles in the United States Air Force. WAF was formed in 1948 when President Truman signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, allowing women to serve directly in the military. The WAF program ended in 1976 when women were accepted into the USAF on an equal basis with men.

WAF was distinct from the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), a small group of female transport pilots that was formed in 1942 with Nancy H. Love as commander. WAFS was folded into the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) in 1943; WASP was disbanded in December, 1944.


Recruits

The first WAF recruit was Sergeant Esther Blake who enlisted July 8, 1948 in the first minute that regular Air Force duty was authorized for women; Blake transferred from the WACs where she had a post in Fort McPherson, Georgia. Lackland Air Force Base, near San Antonio, Texas, was where the first cadre of WAFs reported. Recruits were expected to appear attractive and were schooled in posture and cosmetics along with their physical training and military indoctrination.

African-American recruits joined the WAFs in greater numbers in 1949 when basic training for women was desegregated in the USAF. Integration of quarters and mess was slower in coming.

Barbara A. Wilson started as a Private at Lackland then steadily moved up the ranks. She was the first WAF to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree through a military program at Long Island University. She was the first enlisted WAF NCO (T.Sgt.) to become an officer via Officer Training School (OTS). She retired at the rank of Major, and earned a Master's degree in an Air Force Program at Southern Illinois University. She produced and hosted a TV program about antiques and wrote as a syndicated newspaper columnist in the '80s. Wilson, writing as "Captain Barb", maintains a website with information about women in all branches of the military: Women Military Veterans: Yesterday—Today—Tomorrow.

The first African-American female brigadier general of the USAF was Marcelite J. Harris who attained the rank in 1990. Harris took OTS at Lackland in 1966, after traveling with a USO tour to military bases in Germany and France. Harris said in a 1992 interview with Ebony: "Originally, I wanted to be an actress." After graduating from Spelman College with a BA in speech and drama she joined the WAFs. Specializing in aircraft maintenance, she served as a supervisor at Korat Air Base in Thailand, servicing Vietnam war aircraft. Harris later became Air Officer Commanding at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. She even picked up a degree in Business Management along the way. Circa 1992 Harris held a command at HQ USAF, Washington, DC, where she was responsible for 125,000 airmen and an annual budget of $20 billion. She retired in 1997.