Women Airforce Service Pilots Did Everything Short of Combat Flights
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Historical Perspective BOEING FRONTIERS A group of Women Airforce Service Pilots walks by a Boeing B-17. More than 1,000 American women joined the WASP during World War II. BOEING ARCHIVES PHOTO True Women Airforce Service (renamed U.S. Air Force in 1947), WASP or the B-26s or the B-25s, pass through their trailblazerswere considered part of the Civil Service transition training as successfully as male Pilots did everything and received no military benefits. In fact, pilots and thereafter carry on regularly in when a WASP member made the ultimate operations without undue fatigue or higher- short of combat flights sacrifice for her country, her family and than-normal accident rate.” friends paid for her unceremonious final Cochran convinced Arnold and BY EV E DUMOVICH trip home. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt of Jacqueline Cochran spearheaded the the value of this concept after she ferried a uring World War II, 1,074 American formation of WASP in 1942 when there Lockheed Hudson bomber across the women left homes, families and was a shortage of male pilots, and train- Atlantic in 1942. At the time, both Djobs to risk their lives as the ing women as pilots would release more England and Russia were using women to country’s first female military pilots. As men for air combat. Cochran was an ac- ferry airplanes. Women Airforce Service Pilots, they complished aviator who in 1953 would be- By September 1942, the U.S. Air Trans- flew more than 60 million miles on every come the first woman to break the sound port Command authorized the employment type of mission except actual combat. barrier, in North American’s F-86 Sabre of women flyers, and the Ferry Command Although 38 died in service, more than 30 jet, and the first woman to fly at twice was training women as pilots. Cochran years passed before Congress recognized the speed of sound, in a North American headed the 319th Army Air Force Flying WASP as war veterans. A-5 Vigilante. She went on to serve for Detachment, based in Houston. Nancy These pilots trained, flew and served as 30 years as a member of the board of direc- Love, another skilled pilot, headed the Air hard, and as well, as their male counter- tors of North American Aviation, a prede- Transport Command Squadron, designat- parts. They trained new male and female cessor of Boeing. ed the Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Service, pilots, tested new planes and towed tar- In her final report to Army Air Forces based at New Castle Army Air Base, Del. gets through live ammunition. In 1943 and Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold in 1944, The two units operated separately until 1944, the WASP took more than 12,000 Cochran wrote: “It was of importance to 1943, when Arnold consolidated them as aircraft, from P-51 fighters to the big prove that a whole group of women, without the WASP, directed by Cochran. Love be- Boeing bombers, to battle theatres. Yet un- special selection except for physical require- came staff director of WASP serving with like the male pilots in the Army Air Forces ments, could be assigned to the Fortresses the Air Transport Command. 8 MARCH 2008 BOEING FRONTIERS Historical Perspective BOEING FRONTIERS Former WASP Doris Brinker Tanner was among those who testified before Con- gress. In an article called “We Also Served,” published in the November 1985 issue of American History Illustrated, she wrote: “On May 21, 1971, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, Antonio Chayes, present- ed the first authentic WASP discharge, stat- ing that ‘the efforts and sacrifices of a tal- ented and courageous group of women have been accorded (retroactive) status as military veterans ... and inspire the 47,000 Air Force women who now follow in their footsteps.’ The unknown, gutsy women of PHOTO the World War II Army Air Forces at last ES IV H occupied their rightful place as the first C R female military pilots in American A NG n I history.” OE B [email protected] Jackie Cochran, who helped with the formation of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, sits in the P-51B Mustang that she flew in the 1946 and 1948 Bendix Trophy Race. While legislation giving women pilots cluding the Civil Aeronautics Administra- complete military status waited for Con- tion’s War Training Service Program and WASP displays gressional approval, WASP trainees were the contract schools for cadets, were dis- accepted as federal employees on tempo- missed. They were no longer eligible for rary Civil Service status, so they did not the draft-deferred status many held as re- qualify for flight pay or other standard mil- servists and would likely be drafted into itary benefits. the infantry. These pilots lobbied Congress More than 25,000 women applied and to squash House Bill 4219, designed to 1,830 were accepted for WASP training. grant the WASP full military status, and Of these, 1,074 graduated. Applicants had with it, insurance coverage, hospitalization to pass a tough physical exam, be inter- and burial benefits, and veteran status. viewed by Cochran or her representative, The Military Service Committee and have a high school education and at agreed with Arnold that the WASP should least 35 hours of flying time. be commissioned. However, the powerful The 27 weeks of WASP training includ- Civil Service Committee claimed Congress ed more than 400 hours of ground school never authorized the formation of the PHOTO and 210 hours of flight instruction. With WASP and voted to discontinue the pro- ES IV H the exception of formation and aerobatic gram. On June 21, 1944, the bill was de- C R flying required for combat, the training feated by 19 votes. A NG was identical to that taken by male cadets. On Oct. 1, 1944, each WASP received I OE The first class of 28 recruits began train- a letter from Arnold saying that all the B ing Nov. 16, 1942, at the Howard Hughes Women Airforce Service Pilots would be This group of WASP pilots completed Municipal Airport in Houston. New class- released Dec. 20, 1944. At bases across the B-17 transition training. es began every month, and soon the Hous- United States, WASP hung up their para- A Women Airforce Service Pilots display is ton facility became too crowded. On Nov. chutes and paid their own way back home. 1, 1943, WASP relocated to Avenger Field “I salute you and all WASP. We of the currently part of the Personal Courage Wing at in Sweetwater, Texas. For a brief period Army Air Force are proud of you and we The Museum of Flight in Seattle. The traveling they shared the facility with the last class will never forget our debt to you,” Arnold WASP exhibit “FLYGIRLS of WWII” is on display of male cadets; after that Avenger Field be- told the last group of WASP at Sweet- through April 1 at the Mayborn Museum came a women-only training center. water. Yet America did forget. For 30 years, Complex of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. At WASP graduation ceremonies in records of WASP service at the air bases 1944, Arnold presented the WASP with were sealed and stamped “top secret.” a bronze plaque dedicated to the “Best Then, in 1972, a reunion of 315 for- Women Pilots in the World.” He told the mer WASP at Sweetwater sparked a new graduates that women pilots could do new fire. By their next reunion in 1974, everything needed, short of combat. a Militarization Committee under the But by Febr u a r y 1944, pla ns for the com- guidance of Col. Bruce Arnold (retired) ing invasion of Europe shifted the military —the son of deceased Gen. Arnold— emphasis to ground troops. Thousands of started a process of new Congressional men in Air Forces training programs, in- bills and hearings. BOEING FRONTIERS MARCH 2008 9.