[Address by Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General to WASP Graduate Class, December 7, 1944 #1] Page: 1 of 6
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APPENDIX D. ADDRESS BY
GEN. HENRY H. ARNOLD, COMMANDING GENERAL
ARMY AIR FORCES
TO
LAST WA.S.P. GRADUATE CLASS, 7 DECEMBER 1944I am glad to be here
ng aviation history.
d of war-time servicetoday for a
You and alll
and I sincetalk
WASP
relywith you girls who ha
have been pioneers in
annreciate the solendyou have done for the AAF.
You, and more than nine hundred of your si
can fly wingtip to wingtip with your brothers,
in anyone's mind that women can become skillful
dispelled that doubt,
The possibility of using women to pilot mi
considered in the summer of 1941. We antici'at
would require all our qualified men and many of
know how many of our young men could qualify to
aircraft which American industry could produce
of finding sufficient highly-capable young men
the Navy, the Ground Forces, the Service ForcesEngland and Russia had been forced
to use women
sters, have shown that you
If ever there was a doubt
pilots, the WASP have
litary aircraft was first
ed then that global war
our women. We did not
pilot the thousands of
There was also the problem
to satisfy the demands of
and the Merchant Marines.
to fly trainers and combat-type aircraft. Russian women were being used in combat.
In that emergency I called in Jacqueline Cochran, who had herself
flown almost everything with wings and several times had won air races
from men who now are general officers of the Air Forces. I asked her to
draw a plan for the training and the use of American women pilots0 She
presented such a plan in late 1941 and it formed the basis for the Air
Force's use of WASP,
Frankly, I didn't know in 1941 whether a slip of a young girl could
fight the controls of a B-17 in the heavy weather they would naturally
encounter in operational flying, Those of us who had been flying formaki
fielve
a
idbeen
new
job
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Arnold, Henry Harley. [Address by Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General to WASP Graduate Class, December 7, 1944 #1], script, 1944-12-07~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth894262/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.