Blum is the curator of an exhibit commemorating the WASPs at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale. Blum said of the 1,100 women who were members of the WASPs, 250 are still alive. They include Long Islanders Faust and Margaret Gilman, of Garden City, who also traveled to Washington to attend.

Sass Levine, 57, of Old Westbury, attended the ceremony in memory of her mother, Frances Laraway, who died in 1990. She said her mother would have been humbled by the honor. "I think these women were similar in that they were brave, bold and cocky, but they were also humble," Levine said. "She just felt she had done the job she had chosen to do, and she did it with pride."

With AP