[Clipping: Cochran's Convent] Part: 3 of 12
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TOP: A lone WASP on the wing of a BT-13.
ABOVE: Three WASPs stroll past B-26s at Laredo Army Air Field, Tex.Aviatrix Trophy, had written Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt about the
need for planning to use women
flyers in a national emergency.
"In the field of aviation," she
wrote, "the real bottle-neck in the
long run is likely to be trained
pilots." She stated that male pilots
could be released for combat by
assigning women to "all sorts of
helpful back-of-the-lines work,"
such as flying commercial trans-
port, courier, and ambulance
planes.
Although Mrs. Roosevelt was
sympathetic to Cochran's pro-
posal, the Air Corps in 1939 was
not. The British, however, saw
nothing wrong with women pilots
in military aircraft and invited Mrs.
Cochran to recruit and bring toEngland, for ferrying duties, a
group.of American women pilots.
In the spring of 1942, 25 women
went to England in a uniformed ci-
vilian capacity with the British Air
Transport Auxiliary under 18-
month contracts. They were the
first organized group of American
women pilots to serve in the air
during World War II.
Then, a few months later in Sep-
tember 1942, an experimental
squadron of experienced women
pilots, headed by Mrs. Nancy
Love, was formed to ferry aircraft
for the Air Transport Command.
Because all of these women-23 at
the start-had at least 500 hours in
the air, they were given only four to
six weeks of transitional training to
acquaint them with the operation of/k
Al4Jacqueline Cochran, climbing out of
her Seversky P-35 after becoming the
first woman to win the Bendix Air Race
in 1938.
military aircraft, military organiza-
tion, routes, and related proce-
dures. They were hired under Civil
Service rules and were known in-
dividually as WAFS, members of
the Women's Auxiliary Flying
Squadron.
The first WAFS, however, were a
very select group. With flying time
in larger aircraft going for $40 an
hour, there 'were relatively few
women who had the required 500
hours. There were, however, nearly
2,800 women licensed as pilots
who could be trained to meet mili-
tary flight standards. Gen. Arnold
asked Mrs. Cochran to come back
home and begin a training pro-
gram.
There was no lack of volunteers
when the WASP training programa
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Newcomb, Harold. [Clipping: Cochran's Convent], clipping, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1075345/m1/3/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.