On Shifting Ground: the Women Airforce Service Pilots
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ON SHIFTING GROUND: THE WOMEN AIRFORCE SERVICE PILOTS OF WWII - PUBLIC IMAGES, PRIVATE REALITIES, AND THE BURDENS OF LASTING PROGRESS _______________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of San Diego State University _______________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Women’s Studies _______________ by Kimberly Ann Enderle Summer 2018 iii Copyright © 2018 by Kimberly Ann Enderle All Rights Reserved iv DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to the 1,102 Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II, who demonstrated unselfish passion, resiliency, courage, and commitment while accomplishing something no women had been allowed to do before – fly U.S. military aircraft. This thesis celebrates these courageous female aviators who volunteered to serve their nation during World War II, and to risk it all: their lives, their personal and professional reputations, simply for the opportunity to become the United States’ first women military aviators. This thesis is specifically dedicated to the five women that opened their hearts and their homes to me, who willingly shared their intimate life stories with me, and trusted me to tell their unvarnished stories: Beverly Loyola (Beesie) Beesemyer, Florence “Shutsy” Reynolds, Barbara (Bobbi) Willis Heinrich, Millicent (Millie) Amanda Peterson Young and Jean Landis. Without their generosity, patience, and kindness none of this would have been possible. In the 1940s these women bravely challenged prevailing notion that women were second class citizens, informed by patriarchy and were ultimately deemed “unnecessary and undesirable” by Congressman Robert C.W. Ramspeck (D-GA) who sought to discredit them. Some in society labeled them unfeminine, promiscuous, perverse or immoral, and some defied heterosexual norms simply because they chose to pursue their love of flight which was perceived to transgress gender roles and eschew societal norms. Yet, in spite of these socially constructed barriers, the WASP flourished, they formed homosocial bonds of sisterhood with likeminded women, and they amassed a formidable legacy of accomplishments that would be hidden from the public eye for more than thirty-three years. Arguably without their groundbreaking work during WWII: ferrying aircraft from production plants to the ports of debarkation, serving as flight instructors for male pilots, performing maintenance and engineering test flights, towing targets for B-17 air-to-air gunnery practice, and their success in convincing Doolittle’s Raiders that the B-29 “Superfortress” (the aircraft used to dropped v bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) were safe to fly, the allies might have lost the War. Furthermore, future generations of women aviators might have never been given the opportunity to pursue their passion for flight. I am humbled by your sacrifices, and offer my personal thanks. To those brave women who risked it all, you are role models, and you embody Army Aviation’s motto, “Above the Best!” vi No it was not the novelty, and it was not the danger and the adventure (although these had their charm). It was certainly not a passing whim (if it had been the hard work would have dispelled it in a very short time)! I think there were three chief reasons for my choice of career: First, a real love for, and interest in aviation; Secondly, a determination to earn my own money and to make my career a paying proposition; and, Thirdly, a conviction that aviation was a profession of the future and therefore had room to welcome its new followers. - Pauline Gower, Director, Women’s Auxiliary of the British Air Transport Auxiliary World War II vii ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS On Shifting Grounds: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII – Public Images, Private Realities, and the Burdens of Lasting Progress by Kimberly Ann Enderle Masters of Arts in Women’s Studies San Diego State University, 2018 This interdisciplinary thesis explores the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II from a social constructionist epistemology and the theoretical framework of a feminist historian. It examines the public images Mrs. Jacqueline Cochran-Odlum, (Director of Women Pilots, U.S. Army Air Forces) and Nancy Harkness Love (Director of Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) created and portrayed in the media, in contrast to the private lived experiences of individual WASP veterans. This thesis adds to existing literature by providing new insights into the WASP’s experiences within the cultural and gender norms of the WWII era. The arguments presented in this study are supported by analysis of primary source documents including: media reports, videos and motion picture films, military accessions policies, recruiting correspondence, official military reports, attrition rates, Congressional testimony, personal correspondence, and WASP autobiographies. In addition, five oral history interviews were conducted with WASP veterans living in California, Colorado and Pennsylvania provided first person testimony to support the researcher’s findings regarding the WASPs complicity in or resistance to several forms of oppression prevalent during the WWII era: sexism, racism, classism, and heteronormativity. By examining the WASPs wartime military service, additional insights were gained into their gender non-conformity based on their decisions to pursue careers as pilots in a field heretofore deemed masculine or “men’s work.” viii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Methodology & Why this Work is Important ..........................................................4 Major Research Questions .......................................................................................4 Mixed Methods Approach .......................................................................................5 Conducting Research with Human Subjects ............................................................6 The Researcher’s Standpoint ...................................................................................7 Primary and Secondary Source Analysis .................................................................9 2 HISTORY ....................................................................................................................22 Introduction ............................................................................................................22 Gender Roles and the Right to Full Citizenship ....................................................24 America’s First Women in Aviation ......................................................................26 History of the U.S. Air Forces ...............................................................................29 Civilian Aviation Firsts ..........................................................................................30 The Civilian Pilot Training Program .....................................................................32 Establishment of the Women’s Programs in the Army Air Forces .......................33 Shifting Ground .....................................................................................................37 3 PUBLIC IMAGES – THE LEADERS OF THE WAFS, WFTD AND THE WASP ..........................................................................................................................44 Introduction ............................................................................................................44 Cochran’s Motivation ............................................................................................45 Tomboyism and Resistance to Gender Norms.......................................................46 ix Three Sides to Every Story: Yours, Mine and the Truth ......................................47 Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics ..............................................................................53 Transgressing Gender - Cochran’s Disarming Mix of Feminine Masculinity ............................................................................................................59 Reinforcing Gender Normativity ...........................................................................62 Winners and Losers the Fallout and Backlash .......................................................63 Nancy Harkness Love ............................................................................................65 Selection of Applicants for the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron ..............69 Socioeconomic Class .............................................................................................72 Selection of Applicants for the Women’s Flying Training Detachment and the WASP Program ................................................................................................74 Reinforcing and Maintaining Gender Conformity .................................................78 Media Coverage and Societal Perceptions of Women’s Military Service .............79 Creating the Public Image of the WASP ...............................................................84 Cochran’s Convent – Do What I Say Not What