That year, she joined the glider school at the Kiev Young Pioneer Palace and later graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1941.

[2] In October 1941, several months after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Meklin applied to join the one of the three women's aviation regiments founded by Marina Raskova, and was accepted into training.

During the ceremony when the regiment received the guards flag, Meklin was the standard-bearer, assisted by Glafira Kashirina and Yekaterina Titova.

[2] During the war she flew night bombing missions in a Polikarpov Po-2 over the battles for of the Caucasus, Crimea, Kuban, Kerch, Poland, and Germany spanning the Southern, North Caucasian, 4th Ukrainian and 2nd Byelorussian Fronts.

[5] Her picture was featured on the cover of the May 1943 issue of Smena magazine,[7] the front page of Komsomolskaya Pravda in February 1945,[8] and many other wartime publications.