Margaret “Peg” Ruth Kirchner
Margaret “Peg” Ruth Kirchner was born 12-SEP 1920 in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio. Her parents were Hiram Louis Kirchner (1899-1970) and Ruth M. Pitzer Kirchner (1897-1953). Peg had two sisters: Betty Jane (1918-1995) and Wilma Mary (1923-2002). According to the 1930 Federal Census, the family was living on Rochester Street in Detroit Michigan. Margaret was 9.
By 1940, Margaret was living with Fairlawn Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio with her parents and grandmother Emma Kirchner. Emma was the reported head of the household. Margaret was in her second year at Youngstown College. While attending Youngstown College, Margaret and seven classmates bought an airplane to facilitate their training and earned their private pilot’s licenses through the Civilian Pilot Training Program.
Margaret enlisted in the Air Corps on 25-APR 1943. On Easter Sunday, 1943, at 22-years old, she reported for basic training at Avenger Army Airfield in Sweetwater, Texas, where she excelled and was chosen to advance to B-17 Bomber Training at Lockbourne Army Airfield in Columbus, Ohio.
The most iconic photograph of the WASP’s features Frances (L to R) along with Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn. The four trained on the B‑17 Flying Fortress, one of the largest and most complex aircraft of the war. Their aircraft, the “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” appears in many of the most famous photographs of women pilots during WWII. The photo shows the crew walking confidently across the tarmac with parachutes slung over their shoulders. These images became symbols of the WASP program’s skill, professionalism, and quiet defiance of gender expectations.
As a WASP, Margaret Kirchner performed missions that were essential to the war effort.
For more of her story, click on the pdf below.
