Chapter 9

Women’s Airforce Service Pilots

WASP

 

Emily took the Oath of the WFTD ‘To serve, protect, and defend… so help me God’, she was proud to receive her silver wings at the graduation ceremony, which took place at Avenger Field at the beginning of July 1943. All of her baymates had graduated, including Moira and of course Emily’s friend Madge, who was from another bay. They could not conceal their excitement as they hugged one another after the ceremony was over. They could be assigned anywhere in the USA, so they had no idea when they might meet again. They would ship out quickly as the new students would arrive very soon. They were all impatient to find out where their assignment might take them.

 

 

There was not much time to celebrate as airplanes awaited WFTD pilots for delivery in various locations across the USA. She had to admit that she received more advanced and detailed training than the training she had completed in Britain. Time was a factor in England; they had to move a large number of airplanes as quickly as possible. The ATA pilots did not have time for in-depth training programs as England was under attack and in need of pilots and aircraft to fight off the Luftwaffe. Training in the ATA was on the ‘need to know basis only’ due to the urgency in which the aircraft were required. The factories had hundreds of aircraft lined up, waiting for the ATA pilots to move them before the Luftwaffe could find the recently manufactured aircraft and destroy them before they made it into combat.

The pilots in Emily’s bay each received their assignments after graduation; no time was wasted. Emily, Madge Carter, and Irene Reynolds were ecstatic to find out that they would fly to Long Beach, California to start a transition course to fly pursuits, in particular the P-51 Mustang. Evelyn Richards, Betty Jean Redding, and Lorna Rexford would ferry aircraft out of Wilmington, Delaware under Commander Nancy Love and the WAFS. Madge was happy to go anywhere away from the wind and sand storms as well as the oppressive heat of Sweetwater, Texas. She would not miss the wildlife either, such as the rattlesnakes and other annoying creatures that roamed around at night. She ended up cutting her hair short because it was so difficult to wash all the sand out of her long frizzy hair. She was a city girl from New York, she was used to a different life style, but flying P-51 Mustangs in Long Beach, California was an exciting contrast to New York as well. She might even meet some movie stars in Hollywood.

Moira Rosenberg received the target towing assignment for the anti-aircraft gunners in Iowa. Flying aircraft always involved risk, but Emily thought Moira’s assignment was the most dangerous of them all. One of the pilots from the first class of graduates had lost a foot, when a bullet penetrated the fuselage of the aircraft that she flew while towing the targets. The worn out old relics that they used to pull the targets used lower octane fuel to save on costs, which affected the performance of the planes that were mechanically unsound to begin with. The aircraft stuttered suddenly just as the gunner fired a round at the target. It was all it took to alter the timing of when the gunner should fire the gun. The gunner who fired the shot felt terrible, but it was not his fault. Emily could only hope that things had improved after that accident, for Moira’s sake as well as the other pilots assigned to that task. No wonder, not too many male pilots wanted to do this job, thought Emily. Emily did not think that Jackie Cochran’s decision for the WFTD to tow targets was one of her better ideas. Jackie Cochran was following the same procedures as the British ATA organization, so the WFTD pilots would do many of the same jobs that the ATA pilots performed in England.

Later in July, General Hap Arnold announced his decision to merge the WFTD and the WAFS into one organization, with Jackie Cochran as Director. By August 1943, the new organization called the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) formed with Nancy Love in charge of ferrying the aircraft and Director Jackie Cochran still in charge of training the pilots.

 

Jackie Cochran and General Hap Arnold

 

Jackie Cochran as Director of the organization started to make changes. She decided that the WASP needed a new uniform. She thought that the entire WASP organization should wear the same uniform including Nancy Love’s WAFS, the original ferry pilots, who still wore their green/gray plain uniform. Jackie considered the color extremely dull and the design very basic. The tan slacks with a white blouse worn by the WFTD pilots truly looked unprofessional in Jackie Cochran’s opinion; she thought the student pilots should only wear them during training.

Jackie Cochran always looked immaculate, dressed in well-tailored suits and dresses of a European design. Her hair and makeup was always perfect, she looked as though she stepped out of a fashion magazine. The style conscious Jackie preferred a professionally designed uniform for the WASP, with a feminine style that was becoming to female pilots that were part of an important organization. It also had to be in a color other than khaki or green/gray.

She hired designers at Bergdorf Goodman of New York to design the new uniform. She thought it should be a dark blue color, so the designer suggested Santiago blue in a wool gabardine fabric. Jackie liked it. A month later the designer had a sample of a uniform for Jackie to approve. The dress uniform consisted of a skirt, a belted jacket, a beret with a black shoulder purse. Director Cochran asked Emily who was tall and attractive to model the new blue uniform. The official WASP uniform hardware included WASP Wings, Propeller and Wings, Army Airforce patch, and the W.A.S.P hardware on the lapel. A white shirt with a black tie completed the uniform. It was exactly what Jackie had envisioned. The designer also made up another uniform in an olive green color made from an appalling wool fabric, which Jackie did not find appealing at all, but she asked another pilot to model as a comparison. She then asked General Arnold and General George C Marshal for approval of the uniform. They decided on the Santiago blue with a little persuasion from Jackie. The new Santiago blue WASP uniform became the official attire for the women pilots.

After female pilots completed the training, a fashion coordinator from Dallas professionally fitted each pilot for her Santiago blue uniform before graduation. Their silver wings were pinned above the left pocket of the jacket. The USAAF would pay for the uniform, but the pilots had to buy their own shirt, tie, shoes, and stockings.

The WASP also wore an official Santiago blue flying uniform consisting of slacks, an Eisenhower jacket (Ike jacket), a blue shirt, black tie with a baseball style cap. Emily liked the new uniform, she felt proud to wear it. All the pilots felt comfortable wearing slacks with the new flying uniform.

 

Santiago blue uniform

 

Nancy Love, who was never interested in fashion as well as the rest of the pilots of the original WAFS, did not like the idea of the new uniform, they were happy with their green/gray WAFS uniform, but the new uniform, approved by General Arnold was the official uniform for the entire WASP organization. They had no choice but to wear it.

Jackie made other changes, as she deemed necessary. Along with the new uniforms came the WASP official emblem on a flag of Avenger Field.

Director Cochran wanted it hung by the entranceway of the training base as soon as possible. Emily thought it was a good idea to have an emblem; she just was not sure if the cartoon character was a good choice. Emily continued to read the newsletter about the character called Fifinella who would be the mascot of the all women-training base at Avenger Field. The cartoon character created by Walt Disney had blue wings, an orange jacket, black elbow length gloves, and tight yellow pants. She wore a yellow helmet with a pair of blue flight goggles perched on top. All graduates would wear a Fifinella patch on the left front side of their A-2 leather-flying jacket.

 

Fifinella

 

The letter explained that Fifinella, named after a famous British racehorse, who won the Epsom Derby as well as the Epsom Oaks in 1916. Ronald Dahl wrote a children’s book called ‘The Gremlins’. The female Gremlins were Fifinellas and the children were Widgets in the Gremlins book. The story was about mythical creatures (Gremlins), who sabotage RAF aircraft in retaliation for the destruction of their home in the forest, in order to construct an airplane factory. Gus, a Hawker Hurricane pilot convinced the Gremlins to join forces with the RAF to fight against a common enemy, Hitler and the German Nazis instead of fighting each other. In the end, the Gremlins agree to work together with the RAF against the Nazis. They trained to repair the RAF aircraft rather than sabotage them. Not a bad story thought Emily.

Jackie also decided as more pilots completed training that the WASP could perform other duties as well as ferrying aircraft. They had already transitioned to ferrying high performance planes such as P-51 Mustang fighters and B-24, B-25, B-26 bombers.

Not all the jobs that Jackie found for the pilots were glamorous. In addition to the WASP towing targets behind their aircraft while gunners on the ground fired live ammunition at them, other tasks became part of the list of jobs that the WASP would perform. They would fly cargo planes to deliver material needed to airbases around the USA as well as transport VIP’s to various locations.

Another dangerous job the WASP undertook was flying combat planes in need of repair to airbases for ground training purposes, many unsafe to fly. They also flew in open cockpit aircraft in extremely cold temperatures at high altitudes, when they arrived at their destination, literally frozen stiff, it was necessary to lift them physically from the cockpit. Some of the WASP became test pilots, flying newly designed aircraft. Their job was to report any problems they encountered to the engineers before the military took possession of the new fighters and bombers to fly them into battle.

Jackie had another daunting task she constantly had to deal with which was the press. They continuously hung around Avenger Field looking for photo opportunities. They tried to label the WASP organization as ‘Glamour Girls’ to the public. They portrayed their job as not important just a fun thing where they had a good time, like sunbathing on the roof in their swimsuits. They took photos of some of the attractive female pilots, who looked like models and put them on the front of Life magazine. They never revealed the importance of the job they were doing. Jackie had a difficult time keeping them at bay.

In the midst of all the changes, Jackie received some bad news from England. An American ATA Pilot, Mary Nicholson from Greensborough, North Carolina died in an accident while flying a military aircraft for the ATA in England.

Mary had been a personal secretary for Jackie Cochran in the USA; she assisted Jackie in organizing the twenty-five female pilots, who sailed to Britain to fly for the ATA. Mary was a very accomplished pilot; she was one of the first women to receive a pilot’s license in the state of North Carolina. She also acquired her commercial pilot’s license and was a qualified instructor. Mary was a member of the Ninety-Nines in the USA, the same organization that Jackie served as president.

Mary Nicholson was one of the last American women pilots to arrive in England to fly for the ATA. While ferrying a Miles Master to a Maintenance Unit, Mary`s aircraft developed an oil leak, as a result the engine seized up, which caused the propeller to disengage. She was flying too low, so she was unable to parachute out of the aircraft. Mary Nicholson crashed into a stone barn dying instantly. She was the only American Ata pilot who had died in an accident since March 1942.

Emily was deeply saddened when she heard the news about the death of Mary Nicholson. Emily had met her a few times at the American Red Cross club in London where the American ATA pilots met to socialize.

The ATA held a memorial service surrounded by American and British pilots in England. Unfortunately, her parents could not attend because of the distance and the dangers of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The ATA, not considered military, could not drape an American flag over the coffin, even though she died serving the war effort for Britain and the USA. Jackie Cochran, deeply saddened by the news of Mary’s death, sent a letter to her parents expressing her sincere condolences. Mary was a well-respected brave American pilot in the ATA. Jackie Cochran attended a memorial service held for Mary by her family in Greensborough, North Carolina.

Jackie Cochran committed herself to militarizing the WASP, persistently lobbying so the WASP were entitled to death benefits for the family as well as a military funeral. The USAAF treated the WASP like the military; the WASP did everything the army way, except they were classed as civil service with no benefits. It was Jackie Cochran’s top priority. The women pilots were willing to put their lives on the line for America just like anyone else in the service of their country, so they deserved the same benefits when they gave their lives. Jackie would do her best to get those benefits for the WASP.