Chapter 1
The 1919 Orteig Prize that Raymond Orteig issued was an exclusive award promised to the first aviator, of any Allied country, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a plane in one flight. Specifically, from Paris to New York or New York to Paris. And the winning prize? $25,000 and, of course, plenty of fame (see Fly Girls, Keith O’Brien, 19). Several attempts were made, all ending in disaster. René Fonck narrowly survived a fiery crash that killed two of his crew members (22). Other pilots weren’t so lucky, such as Charles Nungesser, a famous World War I pilot, whose plane never arrived in New York. It wasn’t until twenty-five-year-old Charles Lindbergh, an airmail pilot from Minnesota, that the feat was finally accomplished in 1927 (25).
Chapter 2
Following World War I, a plethora of trained pilots returned to American soil. Jobs such as airmail and passenger airlines were still years away, so the employment options for a pilot were limited. Barnstorming became popular as a way for a pilot to travel around the country, perform stunts, and offer rides in their plane. The Midwest was the biggest draw for these pilots because of the abundance of fields and barns. A wealth of affordable war surplus planes, ranging from $50 to $500 in price, only added to the commonality of barnstormers (see https://sandiegoairandspace.org/exhibits/online-exhibit-page/barnstormers-take-to-the-sky).
Chapter 3
Prior to the US issuing pilot’s licenses, the only way to get licensed was through the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, or FAI, which was based in Paris. In 1926, as a result of the Air Commerce Act, the US started issuing pilot’s licenses. William P. MacCracken Jr., who was the assistant secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, received the first issued private pilot’s license: Pilot License No. 1. MacCracken had offered the honor to Orville Wright, but Wright refused, saying he didn’t need a federal license proving that he’d been the first man to fly. In 1927, Phoebe Omlie was the first woman to receive a Transport License (#199) from the Aeronautics Branch in the US (see https://www.faa.gov/about/history/milestones/media/first_pilots_license.pdf).
Chapter 4
After World War I, planes became safer and more durable, with innovative metal parts replacing wood and canvas. Because of the increased capacity of 1920s and 1930s planes, pilots began breaking aviation speed and distance records. Explorers also had the benefit of traveling to previously impenetrable places, such as Antarctica. Airships grew in popularity until the 1937 tragedy of the fire aboard the Zeppelin Hindenburg. After that, the airships became less desirable. And, of course, the successful transatlantic crossing by Charles Lindbergh became predecessor for international air travel (see http://www.1920-30.com/aviation/).
Chapter 5
When Nancy Love first started flying, radio communication was still evolving. The Air Commerce Act was passed in 1926. This created more developments in air commerce, navigation, establishing airways, and developing safety rules (see http://avstop.com/history/needregulations/act1926.htm). Before 1926, planes didn’t have communication with those on the ground since airway radio stations had only ground-to-ground communications through radiotelegraph. The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) set to work developing a ground-to-air radiotelephone system that spanned up to fifty miles. Improvements continued, and in 1928, two-way radio communication stations were instituted throughout the federal airways system. Commercial planes were then set up with a radiotelephone transmitter and receiver, although the stations could serve only one airplane at a time. The private planes still had to rely on dead reckoning navigation. Then in 1929, the NBS introduced a low-frequency radio range (LFR), or four-course radio range, which vastly improved radio navigation (see http://www.npshistory.com/publications/nhl/theme-studies/aviation.pdf, 84–85).
Chapter 6
Aviator Johnny Miller was a self-taught pilot who became fascinated with planes at the age of four, and as a teenager, he began flying as a barnstormer. His career as a pilot included delivering airmail, setting a transcontinental record in a Pitcairn autogiro, competing in air races, flying for the US Marine Corps, and later serving as a jet airline pilot. For years, Miller wrote a regular column in the American Bonanza Society monthly magazine. Johnny continued to fly well into his nineties (see https://www.flyingmag.com/news-aviation-legend-john-miller-dead-102/).
Chapter 7
Alice Hirschman Hammond and Nancy Love’s friendship was a close one. In 1933, Alice won the first closed-course race for women in Michigan. She was a friend of Amelia Earhart, and after Earhart’s disappearance, Alice proposed that a scholarship be developed to memorialize Amelia, which became the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund. During World War II, in 1941, Alice commanded the women’s flying squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. Alice competed in sixteen of the All Women’s Transcontinental Air Races, and she served as the president of the Ninety-Nines from 1951 to 1953. In the 1960s, she transferred to the Civil Air Patrol in Philadelphia, where she participated in search-and-rescue missions (see https://www.airzoo.org/enshrinees).
Chapter 8
Nancy Love’s premature gray hair came in as a streak near her forehead after her accident with John Miller in 1933 (see Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II, Sarah Rickman, 25). She suffered from frequent headaches as a result of the blow to her head, but it wasn’t until the 1933 spring semester that she took time off from Vassar College.
Chapter 9
The Ninety-Nines was founded in November 1929 by Amelia Earhart and other women pilots in order to provide a supportive environment with the shared passion for flying. In 1929, there were 117 licensed women pilots, and ninety-nine of those joined the organization, which prompted the name of Ninety-Nines. Amelia Earhart served as the first president, and it quickly grew to become an international organization. Today, thousands of licensed women pilots are members throughout more than forty countries. Their primary focus includes educational programs, aerospace workshops, flight-instructor seminars, and other aviation programs. Ninety-Nines is headquartered on the grounds of the Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (see https://www.ninety-nines.org/).
Chapter 10
Jacqueline Cochran first learned to fly in 1932 and, soon after, found that she loved air racing. She competed throughout the 1930s in multiple races, setting records, such as the world’s unlimited speed record for women in 1937. Her second marriage was to the wealthy tycoon Floyd Odlum, who funded many of her campaigns, including Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics. Cochran was close friends with Amelia Earhart and joined the Ninety-Nines, eventually becoming the president of the organization from 1941 to 43 (see The Women with Silver Wings, Landdeck, 47–48).
Chapter 11
Jacqueline Cochran took her first flying lesson in July 1932. She was looking for a way to be a more effective traveling salesperson for a cosmetics company, and her future husband, Floyd Odlum, suggested she fly to her appointments. Floyd offered to pay for the lessons, and Cochran took it from there. One week after her first lesson at Roosevelt Field in Long Island, she soloed. She fell in love with the freedom and speed of flying. On August 17, 1932, she became number 1,498 to earn her private pilot’s license. Earning her license in just six weeks attracted attention from the press, and Cochran’s story made the New York Times (The Women with Silver Wings, Landdeck, 55–56).
Chapter 12
By the time Nancy Love attended the Katharine Gibbs School, it was a well-established educational institution turning out executive secretaries. The secretarial school was founded by Katharine Gibbs, who, at forty-six years old, was left widowed and had not been included in her husband’s will. She wanted women to have more employment opportunities, so she opened a school in Boston’s Back Bay and on Park Avenue in New York City, where she hired teachers from MIT, Columbia, and Brown to teach part-time. Since twenty-six states had laws prohibiting married women from working, Gibbs targeted young society women and college sophomores. She did not allow Jewish women to attend. Her death came two months after her oldest son, Howard’s, death by suicide. Gordon, her younger son, and his wife took over the operations and ownership of the school (see https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/katharine-gibbs-invents-modern-professional-secretary/).
Chapter 13
During the 1916 polio epidemic, New York City was hit hard with the disease. Bob Love was one of those cases. Statistically, about 25 percent of polio victims died. By the end of the year, 27,000 cases had been reported, with 7,000 of them being fatal. New York City had 9,000 cases alone and around 2,000 deaths.
The full name of polio is poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis, and it affected mostly infants or children. According to the New York State Department of Health website, “Polio is a viral disease which may affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis . . . enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person. Polio is more common in infants and young children and occurs under conditions of poor hygiene.”
The virus ran rampant in bigger cities, such as New York City, since sanitation was harder to manage. A vaccine wouldn’t be developed until the 1950s (see https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/histmed3450/?p=95).
Chapter 14
After World War I, the Air Service was reconfigured under the Army Reorganization Act of 1920. Flight training was set up in Texas, and other tactical divisions were set up at other locations. Then in 1926, the Air Corps Act changed the name of the Air Service to Air Corps. This act established the Office of Assistant Secretary of War for Air. “The Air Corps had at this time 919 officers and 8,725 enlisted men, and its ‘modern aeronautical equipment’ consisted of sixty pursuit planes and 169 observation planes; total serviceable aircraft of all types numbered less than 1,000” (see https://www.afhra.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/433914/the-birth-of-the-united-states-air-force/). The Air Corps Training Center was established in San Antonio, Texas. It wasn’t until 1942 that another reorganization created “three autonomous US Army Commands: Army Ground Forces, Services of Supply (later, in 1943, Army Service Forces), and Army Air Forces” (see https://www.afhra.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/433914/the-birth-of-the-united-states-air-force/).
Chapter 15
During the 1930s, women worked at jobs outside the home more than any decade previous. By 1940, the number of employed women went from 10.5 million to 13 million. Most of the jobs the women held were clerical, educational, or domestic. The marriage rate declined 22 percent, so that meant more single women were looking for jobs. Despite the general public’s sentiment against married women working, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied with her husband for more women to work in political offices. Not surprisingly, women earned smaller wages and had fewer benefits than their male coworkers (see https://www.history.com/news/working-women-great-depression).
Chapter 16
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a major supporter of aviation and female pilots. In her “My Day” column, she wrote: “WASHINGTON, Tuesday—It was interesting yesterday at lunch to talk to Miss Cecile Hamilton about the problems of the woman aviator. Apparently, they may spend a great deal of money learning how to fly and never get a chance at a job. . . . There must, however, be possibilities for women pilots to be helpful” (“My Day,” Eleanor Roosevelt, November 22, 1939, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydocedits.cfm?_y=1939&_f=md055430).
And then again in 1942, her column had a major impact:
HYDE PARK, Monday—I have a letter from a gentleman who is very much exercised because our women pilots are not being utilized in the war effort. The CAA says that women are psychologically not fitted to be pilots, but I see pictures every now and then of women who are teaching men to fly. We know that in England, where the need is great, women are ferrying planes and freeing innumerable men for combat service. It seems to me that in the Civil Air Patrol and in our own ferry command, women, if they can pass the tests imposed upon men, should have an equal opportunity for non-combat service. I always believe that when people are needed, they will eventually be used.
I believe in this case, if the war goes on long enough, and women are patient, opportunity will come knocking at their doors. However, there is just a chance that this is not a time when women should be patient. We are in a war and we need to fight it with all our ability and every weapon possible. Women pilots, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used. As my correspondent says: “I think it is time you women spoke up for yourselves and undertook a campaign to see that our 3,500 women fliers, every one of whom is anxious to do something in the war, be given a chance to do it.” Hence, I am speaking up for the women fliers, because I am afraid we cannot afford to let the time slip by just now without using them. (“My Day,” Eleanor Roosevelt, September 1, 1942, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydocedits.cfm?_y=1939&_f=md055430)
Chapter 17
Nancy Love was one of five women who Phoebe F. Omlie chose in 1935 to join the National Air Marking Program, which was part of the Bureau of Air Commerce. Other women included Louise Thaden, Helen Richey, Blanche Noyes, and Helen McCloskey, making them the first employees of a US government program planned and directed by an all-women staff and paid for by the Works Progress Administration. The program divided states into sections of twenty square miles. The name of the town or nearest town was painted on the roofs of the largest buildings at fifteen-mile intervals. If a building wasn’t available, ground markers were created with bricks or rocks. The air markers created a way for private pilots to navigate since they didn’t have radios. In an article Ellen Nobles-Harris wrote, she stated, “By the middle of 1936, 30 states were actively involved in the program, with approvals given for 16,000 markers at a cost of about one million dollars” (see https://www.ninety-nines.org/air-marking.htm).
Chapter 18
The Society section of the local Battle Creek, Michigan, newspaper printed an account of Nancy Harkness and Robert Love’s wedding, titled “Hannah Harkness, Hastings Woman Flyer, Is Wedded”:
On January 11, 1936, in the First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, Michigan, Hannah Lincoln (Nancy) Harkness became the bride of Robert MacLure Love. The Rev. John Kitching officiated at the ceremony, which took place at high noon. A detailed account of the wedding can be found in an article in the Society Sections of area newspapers, which begins:
“The church was decorated with evergreen and variegated white flowers. The Wedding March from Lohengrin and Mendelssohn’s recessional were played on the organ. The bride, who carried a bouquet of white orchids and lilies of the valley, wore a white satin dress made along princess lines, with a high cowl neck, long sleeves and train. She also wore a tulle veil, which attached to a small off-the-face cap. . . . Her matron of honor, Mrs. Robert B. Harkness Jr., of Lincoln, Massachusetts, wore an ankle-length gray crepe dress with an aquamarine sash and a gray velvet hat.” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 39–40, taken from Battle Creek, Michigan, newspaper, Jan. 12, 1936)
Chapter 19
Women weren’t always allowed to enter air races, and in August 1929, the Cleveland National Air Races held the First Women’s Air Derby. The race began in Santa Monica, California, and ended in Cleveland. The requirements to enter the race were to have 100 hours of solo flying, including twenty-five of those hours cross-country; a license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale; and a gallon of water and three-day food supply in their planes. Twenty women pilots entered the eight-day flying Derby. Fourteen finished, with Louise Thaden as the winner. Other notable races included the Women’s International Free-For-All, the Dixie Derby, the Women’s National Air Meet, and the Ruth Catterton Air Sportsman Pilot Trophy Race.
Sometimes, women were allowed to compete against men, for example, in the National Air Race and Transcontinental Handicap Air Derby and Frank Phillips Trophy Race. In 1936, women were allowed to enter the Bendix Trophy Race, in which Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes won first place.
After World War II, air racing was rejuvenated by Ninety-Nines President Jeanette Lempkel. Races such as the first All Woman Air Race and the All-Woman Transcontinental Air Races (AWTAR) were born (see https://www.ninety-nines.org/women-in-air-racing.htm).
Chapter 20
Louise Thaden, as close friends with Amelia Earhart, shared her final conversation with Earhart before she embarked on her round-the-world flight:
In January of 1937 I flew to California. Circling Union Air Terminal at Burbank I landed, taxiing toward Paul Mantz’s hangar, to see A.E.’s twin-engine Lockheed. I could just see the top of her head as she leaned forward in the cockpit. Pushing on the brakes and opening the throttle of my Beechcraft I pulled up with a thunderous roar wing to wing with the “Flying Laboratory.”
“Look here,” I said to her, “You’ve gone crazy on me. Why stick your neck out a mile on this round-the-world flight? You don’t need to do anything more. You’re tops now and if you never do anything you always will be. It seems to me you have everything to lose, and nothing to gain. If you fall in the drink all you have accomplished during the last nine years will be lost. You know as well as I do it’s a hazardous flight over oceans, jungles and thousands of miles of uninhabited country.”
She laughed. “Come over here.” We sat down on the edge of the rubber lifeboat which was inflated for test. “You’re a fine one to be talking to me like that. Aren’t you the gal who flew in last year’s Bendix with a gas tank draped around your neck?”
“Yeah,” I said, “but that’s different. I was over land with a chance of walking out.”
“Listen,” she answered, “You can’t talk to me about taking chances!”
“Well all right Amelia, I give up, but just the same I wish you wouldn’t do it.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, each thinking our own thoughts.
“I’ve wanted to do this flight for a long time,” she said finally with unusual seriousness.
“I know you have.”
“I’ve worked hard, and I deserve one fling during my lifetime.”
“But Amelia . . .”
“If I bop off you can carry on; you can all carry on. But I’ll be back.” And she grinned.
“But Amelia!” I said in grim hopelessness, “You’re needed. And you know as well as I do no one could ever take your place.”
“Oh pshaw!” she said jumping up, brushing dust off her slacks. “I have to run. Will you have dinner with G. P. and me?”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m expected in town. What flowers shall I send for you?”
“Well, water lilies should be appropriate shouldn’t they?”
In silence we walked to the car. “You know all the things I’d like to say,” I said.
Tanned hand on the door handle, blonde sunburned hair blowing in an off-shore breeze, she turned toward me. “If I should bop off,” she said, “it will be doing the thing I’ve always wanted most to do. Being a fatalist yourself you know The Man with the little black book has a date marked down for all of us—when our work here is finished.”
Nodding, I held out my hand. “Goodbye, and all the luck in the world!”
Perhaps it is because I have known Amelia for so long that I find it difficult to draw a word picture of her. Perhaps that is why it is impossible adequately to describe her stanch fineness, her clear-eyed honesty, her unbiased fairness, the undefeated spirit, the calm resourcefulness, her splendid mentality, the nervous reserve which has carried her through exhausting flights and more exhausting lecture tours.
As many another I have often speculated on death and life hereafter. Eternal life, I think, is a life so lived that its deeds carry on through the ages. A. E. has carved a niche too deep to ever be forgotten. She will live. So I have said no farewell to her. As she invariably ended letters to me, so I say to her, “Cheerio!” (see “A.E.”—A Postscript, High, Wide and Frightened, Louise Thaden, 150–152).
Chapter 21
By August 1941, the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), a civilian organization set up during World War II, was ferrying military aircraft from factories to airfields, which freed up pilots for combat roles. The women’s section of the ATA flew Tiger Moths, but they soon changed to allow women to fly more types of aircraft, including Hurricanes, Spitfires, Lancasters, and Flying Fortresses. During the war, the ATA pilots delivered more than 309,000 aircraft. Eventually, the ferry aircraft were loaded with guns so they could defend themselves against German aircraft during ferrying deliveries (see https://www.kenleyrevival.org/content/history/women-at-war/air-transport-auxiliary#:~:text=The%20first%20eight%20women%20were,Patterson%2C%20and%20Winifred%20Crossley%20Fair).
Chapter 22
The Lend-Lease Act was passed on March 11, 1941, and allowed the United States to lend or lease ships, planes, or other war supplies to Allied nations—or those who were aligned in the defense of the US. For nearly a year, leading up to the signed Act, debates raged about whether the US could maintain neutrality while sending war supplies to other countries. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill requested help from President Roosevelt after Britain lost eleven destroyers to the German Navy. Although Roosevelt had promised in his 1940 presidential election campaign to keep America out of the war, that all changed when the Axis powers continued to gain ground. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson summed up his argument in favor of the Act by saying, “We are buying . . . not lending. We are buying our own security while we prepare. By our delay during the past six years, while Germany was preparing, we find ourselves unprepared and unarmed, facing a thoroughly prepared and armed potential enemy” (see https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/lend-lease-act).
Chapter 23
When the Japanese military launched their surprise attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, it sent America headlong into World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 US military personnel, including sailors, soldiers, and civilians. One thousand one hundred seventy-eight people were wounded, and 129 Japanese soldiers were killed. This set off a chain reaction around the world, and Allied countries declared war on Japan. On December 8, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Congress nearly unanimously approved Roosevelt’s declaration of war on Japan. The single, opposing vote against the declaration of war was by Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who said, “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else” (see https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor).
Chapter 24
While working at the ATA in England, Jacqueline Cochran experienced the trials of war firsthand. In her book, The Stars at Noon, Cochran shared her experience: “Bombing of London was heavy in those days. The Battle of Britain was on. The sky at night was full of flashing planes, searchlights, and antiaircraft fire accompanied by the incessant sound of the sirens and the explosions of bombs. One night just before I left England the biggest raid of all was on. My house seemed to be in a sort of grandstand position and I got out of bed, wrapped a blanket around me and sat on the front steps. It was a long fight. The panes in my windows were broken from nearby bomb explosions. A house went to pieces a block up the street and then another hit came just a block below me” (113).
Chapter 25
Teresa James, who became one of the original WAFS, was well qualified at 2,200 hours of flight time. Meeting Nancy Love for the first time at New Castle, Teresa observed: “This Base is new and not at all what I had expected an Army Base to be. Buildings and roads are under construction and mud is knee-deep all over the place. I don’t know what I expected, probably old red brick buildings with ivy clinging all over. . . . Nancy Love is everything I thought and more! Beautiful, capable and charming. Wish she would show up right now. Twice already she has put me at ease, and I could stand it again” (The Women with Silver Wings, Landdeck, 25).
Chapter 26
Teresa James received a telegram on September 6, 1942, inviting her to join the Ferrying Program. Signed by Nancy Love and Colonel Robert Baker, the telegram read: “Ferrying Division Air Transport Command is establishing group of women pilots for domestic ferrying. Necessary qualifications are high school education, age between 21 and 35, commercial license, 500 hours, 200 horsepower rating. Advise commanding officer Second Ferrying Group, Ferrying Division Air Transport Command, Newcastle County Airport, Wilmington, Delaware, if you are immediately available and can report at once at Wilmington at your own expense for interview and flight check. Bring two letters recommendation, proof of education and flying time” (The Women with Silver Wings, Landdeck, 11).
At a petite five foot one, Betty Gillies mastered the P-47 in early 1943 and observed, “It really was no problem fitting myself in the airplanes. I sat on a cushion, which with the parachute, put me up plenty high. And the only real long-legged airplanes were those for which I had the blocks. I could use a cushion behind me quite well in all but the P-38, the P-47 and the P-51. In those cockpits, the gunsights were too close to my face if I used a cushion behind me. The blocks Grumman made up gave my legs the length I needed. Grumman also made me a gadget to turn fuel valve in the P-38” (The Originals, Rickman, 140–141).
Chapter 27
Sacrifice was a normal and expected part of any war, and the Gillies family was no different. Betty Gillies’s husband, Bud, was exempt from the draft because of the work he did with Grumman Aircraft. Betty also wanted to do her part. Because her mother-in-law agreed to care for the children, Betty was able to serve by flying for the WAFS. In her words: “It was hard to leave Bud and the kids, but we managed to keep in close touch and see each other from time to time. TDY [temporary duty] at Farmingdale [1943–44] was a joy to me because then I could RON [remain overnight] at home. I loved flying and I was, and still am, very patriotic” (The Originals, Rickman, 51).
Chapter 28
In Betty Gillies’s diary, she wrote about her experience when she first arrived at New Castle and saw the BOQ barracks: “As I remember, my reaction to the physical properties of the base was mainly AWE! The huge airport with the fantastic flying machines scattered about. Our quarters were rather drafty. My room was on the north-west corner and one could see daylight through several of the cracks. But I loved it! BOQ 14 was right in the center of the base and next to the Officers’ Club, which we were privileged to enjoy” (The Originals, Rickman, 56).
Chapter 29
After Catherine Slocum left the WAFS Program, the remaining squadron consisted of Nancy Love, Betty Gillies, Cornelia Fort, Aline “Pat” Rhonie, Helen Mary Clark, Adela “Del” Scharr, Esther Nelson, Teresa James, Barbara Poole, Helen Richards, Barbara Towne, Gertrude Meserve, Florene Miller, Barbara Jane “B.J.” Erickson, Delphine Bohn, Barbara “Donnie” Donahue, Evelyn Sharp, Phyllis Burchfield, Esther Manning, Nancy Batson, Katherine “Kay” Rawls Thompson, Dorothy Fulton, Opal “Betsy” Ferguson, Bernice Batten, and Dorothy Scott. Soon to join were Helen “Little Mac” McGilvery and Kathryn “Sis” Bernheim. Even though Pat Rhonie left early on, she is still counted among the Original squadron of twenty-seven (Nancy Love, Rickman, 97–98).
Chapter 30
Once the WASP pilot training was moved to Sweetwater, Texas, the Pilot Training Program was divided into a two-phase system. During the 23 weeks of training, the trainee had 115 hours of flying and 180 hours of ground school. Their training also included “military training including military courtesy and customs, Articles of War, safeguarding of military information, drill and ceremonies, Army orientation, organization, military correspondence, chemical warfare and personal affairs” (Those Wonderful Women, 369). Ground school included “mathematics, physics, maps and charts, navigation, principles of flight, engines and propellers, weather, code, instrument flying, communications, and physical and first aid training” (369).
Chapter 31
It wasn’t until November 25, 1942, that newspapers in America began reporting that over two million Jews had been murdered. Up until then, US State Department officials considered the mass extermination of the European Jews only a war rumor. In response to learning that the deaths had indeed occurred, December 2 was declared an international day of mourning. And on December 17, Allied governments, including the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, released a “Declaration on Atrocities.” Although this declaration condemned the cruelty toward the Jews, there were no plans for rescue efforts made (see https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-united-states-and-the-holocaust-1942-45).
Chapter 32
Every WASP death was a tragedy, but Cornelia Fort’s struck Nancy’s core since Cornelia was an Original and she’d survived the Pearl Harbor attack by dodging a Japanese bomber. About that fateful December day, Cornelia said, “I jerked the controls away from my student and jammed the throttle wide open to pull above the oncoming plane. . . . He passed so close under us that our celluloid windows rattled violently, and I looked down to see what kind of plane it was. . . . The painted red balls on the tops of the wings shone brightly in the sun. I looked again with complete and utter disbelief” (Fly Girls, P. O’Connell Pearson, 31).
Cornelia was a strong advocate for freedom, a belief she carried with her into the WASP Program. Before her death, she wrote, “As long as our planes flew overhead, the skies of America were free and that’s what all of us everywhere are fighting for. And that we, in a very small way are being allowed to help keep that sky free is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever known” (Pearson, 95).
Chapter 33
The pilot classification list is as follows:
Class I—qualified to fly low-powered, single-engine airplanes (PT-17, PT-19, PT-26, Cubs)
Class II—qualified to fly twin-engine trainers and utility planes (UC-78, AT-9)
Class III—qualified to fly twin-engine cargo/medium transport planes and on instruments (C-47, C-60)
Class IV—qualified to fly twin-engine planes in advanced categories, such as attack planes, medium bombers, and heavy transports (B-25, A-20, A-24, A-25)
Class V—qualified to fly the biggest airplanes, four-engine bombers, and transports (B-17, B-24, B-29, C-54) and able to deliver them overseas
Class P-i—qualified to fly single-engine (P-51, P-47, P-40, P-39, and P-63) and twin-engine (P-38 and P-61), high-performance pursuits or fighters. The small “i” after the P denoted instrument rated. (See Over the Hump, Tunner, 27–28.)
Chapter 34
The Newsweek article titled “Coup for Cochran,” with the caption, “Miss Cochran and Mrs. Love: Which one bosses women fliers?” beneath their photographs, read in part: “Last week came a shake-up . . . even the Air Forces weren’t agreed on which of the photogenic female flying chiefs would outrank the other. The ATC maintained that Miss Cochran’s job was merely advisory and not superior to Mrs. Love’s executive post. But officials at Air Forces headquarters insisted that Miss Cochran had ‘highest authority’ over women pilots: ‘If the Air Transport Command is not already aware of this, they will have to be made aware of it’” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 130).
Chapter 35
In order to fulfill more duties with women pilots, Jacqueline Cochran sent a selection of those who graduated from Class 43-3 to Camp Davis, where they’d enter training for towing gunnery targets (see Nancy Love, Rickman, 132). WASP aviator Betty Jane Williams said, “We were basically used as target practice. We flew target sleeves behind our planes so ground troops could practice firing live ammunition at a moving target. A couple of times they almost blew me out of the sky.” Other duties included test-flying refurbished planes to see if they were ready to return to service (see https://www.dailynews.com/2022/05/28/thank-you-to-the-wasps-unsung-women-pilots-during-world-war-ii-who-served-and-died-for-freedom/).
Chapter 36
In Nancy Love’s B-4 bag, she carried a letter written by her husband. Bob’s letter was written to Major Roy Atwood, executive officer of the ATC European Wing in London, and it was supposed to be an enthusiastic introduction (see Nancy Love, Rickman, 142):
They should arrive in Prestwich presently, and due to the shortness of time will bring this letter. I have known these people for a good while and they are thoroughly competent as pilots, as well as having a background in aviation activities. They are being sent to perform a certain number of liaison with the ATA and other agencies interested in the ferrying of the aircraft to the UK.
I am sure you will find these two personalities pleasant, if not unusual, in that they arrive as they did, and sincerely hope you will give them your highly accredited effort in showing them around.
Very sincerely yours,
Robert M. Love
Colonel, G.S.C.
Deputy Chief of Staff
P.S. Incidentally one of them is my wife and the other a good friend.
Chapter 37
Nancy Love’s disappointment over the canceled B-17 transatlantic mission didn’t fade. Years later in 1955, she wrote, “I had always wanted to fly a B-17 and wondered if I’d be capable of handling an airplane of that size. . . . We started for Prestwick, Scotland, with a crew of three enlisted men and a lieutenant navigator. This dream was shattered for us when we were held overnight by weather in Goose Bay Labrador. Someone high up, who apparently disapproved us of in particular, heard about it and stopped the flight. Betty and I, raging and frustrated, were sent ignominiously home, while a male replaced us as pilots. That disappointment is still with me though later I managed to fly around the world, about half of the trip as a pilot” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 146).
Chapter 38
WASP aviator Iris Critchell remembered how the P-51s took ferrying precedence over most of the other aircraft in the urgency to get them delivered overseas: “The P-51s were such a high priority, in the fall of 1944 after we delivered to Newark, we no longer were allowed to detour and pick up a P-39 or P-40 on the way back to Long Beach. Instead, we were under orders to return to base immediately on the airlines or military transport the fastest way possible. At the Newark airport where we landed, the harbor was right there. The ships were pulled into the slips where they waited for our airplanes. We’d land the P-51 where the men were ready to load the aircraft onto the ships. Sometimes they were in such a hurry, they’d start to pull it by the tail to be loaded—with us still in the cockpit! They wanted them on their way to England or Italy as fast as possible” (Global Mission, H.H. Arnold, 358–359).
Chapter 39
Delphine Bohn, who was the commander of the 5th Ferrying Group’s women’s squadron in Dallas, didn’t hold back on her opinion of how stressful it became toward the end of 1944, knowing that the WASP Program was going to be disbanded: “Even the female of the human species began to wilt, to lose energy and strength. There was a greatly evident lack of all vitamins. We were subjected to debilitating psychological pressures! The questions of militarization or non-militarization and with whom as primary director were wrapped round with and buried in too much desire for personal glorification by too many people. Also, there were too many questionable decisions to be made as to our own grading of various female abilities and disabilities, inclusive of flight” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 211).
Chapter 40
Nancy Love shared this story of her first C-54 delivery with another WASP as her copilot: “The plane was to be delivered to American Export Airlines, and was the first DC-4 to be assigned to them. So the chief pilot and high officials were at the field at 1 p.m., waiting. They had never had such big ones before and were much impressed by the size of the plane. They hurried aboard, walked up the long passenger aisle, opened the front cockpit door with expressions of triumph and welcome on their faces. They stopped in a sort of frozen shock as their minds finally grasped the fact that the two happily grinning pilots were women! Without a word, they turned and walked out again” (Mardo Crane, “The Women With Silver Wings,” Part One, The 99 News, Special Issue 1978).
Chapter 41
WASP member Marie Muccie fondly remembered the huge military zoot suit she wore when first in training. When the bill to militarize the WASP in 1944 was turned down, Marie realized that society wasn’t ready to accept women fully into the military and be given the same duties as men. She clarified, “Opponents of the bill say we Wasps were not under military discipline. They must be kidding. We received the same training as the male Air Force Cadets. The US Army Air Corps issued orders for all military missions. We flew all the same type of military aircraft from small trainers to bombers. . . . By offering official recognition of our part to help win the war would mean a great deal to us. It would be like the US government saying, ‘Thank you for a job well done.’ We earned it, we deserve it and we did do a good job” (Fly Girls, Pearson, 167–168).
Chapter 42
Despite the devastation that Nancy Love felt over the disbanding of the WASP Program, she reached far into her network to line up jobs for the women pilots. In one such case, she wrote to Mr. Traylor of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation about possible available jobs: “I am very anxious to see these pilots given an opportunity to utilize the flying skill they have acquired in the service, since they have worked hard and conscientiously for the Army, and now find themselves without jobs. . . . If you will advise me as soon as possible of your requirements, I will advise the WASP Squadron leaders at our Ferrying Groups, and can assure you that they will select highly qualified pilots upon whom you can depend” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 214–215).
Following is the full list of the 38 WASP who died. Overall, 27 WASP were killed on flying missions. The rest died in training crashes or as a result of malfunctioning equipment (see https://cafriseabove.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Women-Airforce-Service-Pilots-Killed-in-Service.pdf).