The Aviators
In 1942 the United States was faced with a great shortage of pilots. Leaders argued over whether or not to start a new program to fill the void: a group of female pilots. In 1942 under the leadership of Nancy Harkness Love, the WAFS (Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) flew aircrafts from manufacturing plants to bases when needed. These women were ones that had extensive flight experience. Also in 1942, Jacqueline Cochran founded the WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment) "to perform any kind of flight service required by the Army Air Corps in addition to ferrying."¹ In 1943, the WAFS and WFTD merged to form the Women Air-force Service Pilots (WASP).
"To be a female pilot was to be an extremely rare bird."² Each WASP was very well trained. The 1,074 women flew 77 types of aircrafts throughout the war. |
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The worst difficulty these pilots faced was men. "Their abilities were so unusual that many refused to believe women were capable of doing what WASPs in fact did."² The following is the report from a male pilot:
"A Thunderbolt broke out at about 500 feet, made a smooth turn to the end of the runaway and rolled to as pretty a stop as I ever saw...
I ran up to the wing and out stepped the teeny-weeniest little girl...
"Your plane, captain?" she asked me, and I nodded. She went on, "Needs a little right aileron but I don't think it's serious enough to put in a shim."
Just then the tower man ran up. "Look here, you, why didn't you tell
me you were a girl?"
"You cleared me in, didn't you, soldier?" and it was a tough voice from a kid like that.
"But if I'd known you were a girl," the tower man started, but she cut him
short.
"Listen," she said, "Where's that Skytrain, for back up north you told me to hurry up and catch?"² ²², .. sdafs.........
smt t aboTHunderbolt sd
"A Thunderbolt broke out at about 500 feet, made a smooth turn to the end of the runaway and rolled to as pretty a stop as I ever saw...
I ran up to the wing and out stepped the teeny-weeniest little girl...
"Your plane, captain?" she asked me, and I nodded. She went on, "Needs a little right aileron but I don't think it's serious enough to put in a shim."
Just then the tower man ran up. "Look here, you, why didn't you tell
me you were a girl?"
"You cleared me in, didn't you, soldier?" and it was a tough voice from a kid like that.
"But if I'd known you were a girl," the tower man started, but she cut him
short.
"Listen," she said, "Where's that Skytrain, for back up north you told me to hurry up and catch?"² ²², .. sdafs.........
smt t aboTHunderbolt sd
Despite prejudice and other hardships, these women proved that they were so good at flying that they were given almost every task men pilots were given.
¹Pictures and Excerpt from National Women's History Museum; ²Excerpt from American Women and World War II; ³Excerpt from ; Video from youtube.com