[Clipping: Prothros endow A&M Photography series; first book beautiful] Part: 1 of 2
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%i Saturday & Sunday, May 5 & 6, 1990
CA. 1K- S'Y- Y -
LIVING
Ti-e- Recrd News-
Prothros endow A&M photography series; first book beautiful
By Louise .
Books Editor
Wichita Falls art patrons
,narles and Elizabeth Prothro
nave'ffiade~certain the memoyy
f more than 1,000 pioneer
women who flew military planes
luring World War II is preserved
forever.
"For God, Country, and the
Thrill of It: Women Airforce Ser-
,ice Pilots in World W~r II" is a
pectacular booik, the first in a
exas Photography Series estab-
ished by te Prothros to provide
visual record oFTfe and culture
Texas. Texas A&M L niversity
iS is publisher of the series,
d this No. 1 large glossy white-
& , -&0.'JpictLuI S'teL a nigh standard.
Photographs and text are by
AnneNoggle, a former WASP
wno still e6ls a knot in her
stomach upon takeoff "when an
old pilot's reaction to the angle of
climb warns of an impending
stall. How glad I am that I flew
when any red-blooded aviator
tore up the skies without radar
and regulations to give caution."
No one can guarantee preser-
vation forever. Some say the life
of the paper in a book is 50 years,
yet rare books in libraries and
private collections attest to
greater longevity. This book
about the WASPs, who beganiuear Sweetwater, Texas, is
printed on paper said to be acid-
free. It should enjoy an effective
life of 300 years, an epilogue
points out.
The WASP program had its
auspicious beginning after noted
flyer Jacqueline Cochran in the
summer of 1942 had recruited 25
American women pilots to ferry
airplanes for the British Air
Transport Auxiliary. The United
States, suffering from the loss of
trained male pilots in the early
battles of the Pacific, followed
suit with a similar program._._ Yh~ln w~pi vv 1Yi . i jplled
for training, but fewer than 2,000
were accepted.
Women's duties included ferry-
ing planes, towing targets for
anti-aircraft and air-to-air gun-
nery practice. At Avenger Field
training hours for women in-
creased from 115 flight hours
over five months to 210 flight
hours over seven months. During
early stages of the program, an
80 percent graduation rate was
anticipated, but actual rates
proved to be 74 percent for 1943
graduates anZh53 percent fortTe
1944 class. -.
Pictures of the women traineeslife in the barracks. They are
shown sleeping outside on hot
summer nights, posing in Army-
issue coveralls that are
outrageously too big, taking part
in mass calisthenics, in chow line
and mess hall, in front of their
planes and in cockpits.
Time takes its toll, never-
theless, and pictures of surviving,
WASPs in the latter part of the
book bear witness to the fact that
youth doesn't last forever. More
than 45 years have passed since
the women flew off into the wildture they had is now only a c
ory. One almost wishes the pic-
tures of the women as they are
now had not been included so the
illusion of youth and its daring
could have been maintained
Among WASPs from Wichi'..
Falls are Virginia Clair, a
woman whose story was told in
the Times in 1988, and the late
Leoti Deaton.
Holden's book shop in Parker
Square will have available "For
God, Country, and the Thrill Of_J
k . L.4 ;tic) -. Y
4,t l _
Time~sRecord ews
I
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Reference the current part of this Clipping.
Gregg, Louise. [Clipping: Prothros endow A&M Photography series; first book beautiful], clipping, May 5, 1990; Wichita Falls, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1164526/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.