The world's first women combat pilots were members of the Soviet 
Army Air Force, flying fighters and bomber aircraft opposite the 
Luftwaffe. Thirty women flyers received Hero of the Soviet Union 
awards, one of that nation's highest honors.

    During three visits to Moscow during and after the collapse 
of the Soviet Union, Anne Noggle interviewed more than seventy of
 these veteran pilots. Freed by glasnost to speak openly of their
experiences, they told of flying flimsy aircraft and watching 
many of their friends—as well as foes—fall to earth in flames.
 
    But equally courageous were the women's efforts to show the 
Red Army that they were adequate to the great role they sought. 
The women had to grapple with deep distrust from male pilots and 
officers, against whom they eventually prevailed. War, Stalin-era 
politics, and human emotion mix in these gripping, first-person accounts.

_________________________________________________________

ANNE NOGGLE, herself an American Woman Air Force Service Pilot
in World War II, retired from the air force as a captain and lives in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a former adjunct professor of art
and curator of photography at the University of New Mexico. She is
the author of For God, Country, and the Thrill of It: Women
Airforce Service Pilots in World War II, also published by
Texas A&M University Press.



What people are saying about this book

". . . the compelling narratives in A Dance with Death are equally
valuable as history and as testimony to the extraordinary
performance of women under the greatest stress imaginable."—New
York Times Book Review