The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron
In May of 1940, twenty-six year old Nancy Harkness Love wrote General Olds with a plan to use women pilots to ferry planes. It wasn't until 1942 that the shortage of pilots became so severe that General Olds decided to put Nancy's plan into action. In September of 1942, Nancy Love was appointed as director of the Women's Auxiliary Flying Squadron (WAFS) under Major Tunner. Nancy promptly sent telegrams to eighty-three of America's best women pilots. The requirements were strict: the women needed to be between twenty-one and thirty-five, have logged 500 hours in the air, hold a commercial license, a 200-horsepower engine rating, and have recent cross-country flying experience. While the WAFS were being organized by Love, the Army Air Force appointed Jacqueline Cochran as Director of Women's Fly Training which trained 232 women to fly military planes. On August 5, 1943 the WAFS merged with Jackie Cochran's program to become the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
|
|
" 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." -First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in "My Day"
The WASP Program begins
In the sixteen months the WASPs were active; more than 25,000 women applied for training, but only 1,879 candidates were accepted. Of those accepted, 1,074 successfully completed the grueling training. In November 1942, Cochran's new recruits began arriving on a dusty airstrip at Howard Hughes Field in Houston, Texas. Although they were recruited by the Army Air Force, they were not considered military conscripts and were given no accommodations, no transportation to base, and no uniform. Within a month the pilot school was transferred to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. By the time the WASPs were disbanded in December 1944, they had flown a total of 60 million miles in 77 different models of aircraft. For now though, they were just getting started.
|