Lady flyer, p.41
Lady Flyer, page 41
“Look here,” I said to her, “You’ve gone crazy on me. Why stick your neck out a mile on this round-the-world flight? You don’t need to do anything more. You’re tops now and if you never do anything you always will be. It seems to me you have everything to lose, and nothing to gain. If you fall in the drink all you have accomplished during the last nine years will be lost. You know as well as I do it’s a hazardous flight over oceans, jungles and thousands of miles of uninhabited country.”
She laughed. “Come over here.” We sat down on the edge of the rubber lifeboat which was inflated for test. “You’re a fine one to be talking to me like that. Aren’t you the gal who flew in last year’s Bendix with a gas tank draped around your neck?”
“Yeah,” I said, “but that’s different. I was over land with a chance of walking out.”
“Listen,” she answered, “You can’t talk to me about taking chances!”
“Well all right Amelia, I give up, but just the same I wish you wouldn’t do it.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, each thinking our own thoughts.
“I’ve wanted to do this flight for a long time,” she said finally with unusual seriousness.
“I know you have.”
“I’ve worked hard, and I deserve one fling during my lifetime.”
“But Amelia . . .”
“If I bop off you can carry on; you can all carry on. But I’ll be back.” And she grinned.
“But Amelia!” I said in grim hopelessness, “You’re needed. And you know as well as I do no one could ever take your place.”
“Oh pshaw!” she said jumping up, brushing dust off her slacks. “I have to run. Will you have dinner with G. P. and me?”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m expected in town. What flowers shall I send for you?”
“Well, water lilies should be appropriate shouldn’t they?”
In silence we walked to the car. “You know all the things I’d like to say,” I said.
Tanned hand on the door handle, blonde sunburned hair blowing in an off-shore breeze, she turned toward me. “If I should bop off,” she said, “it will be doing the thing I’ve always wanted most to do. Being a fatalist yourself you know The Man with the little black book has a date marked down for all of us—when our work here is finished.”
Nodding, I held out my hand. “Goodbye, and all the luck in the world!”
Perhaps it is because I have known Amelia for so long that I find it difficult to draw a word picture of her. Perhaps that is why it is impossible adequately to describe her stanch fineness, her clear-eyed honesty, her unbiased fairness, the undefeated spirit, the calm resourcefulness, her splendid mentality, the nervous reserve which has carried her through exhausting flights and more exhausting lecture tours.
As many another I have often speculated on death and life hereafter. Eternal life, I think, is a life so lived that its deeds carry on through the ages. A. E. has carved a niche too deep to ever be forgotten. She will live. So I have said no farewell to her. As she invariably ended letters to me, so I say to her, “Cheerio!” (see “A.E.”—A Postscript, High, Wide and Frightened, Louise Thaden, 150–152).
Chapter 21
By August 1941, the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), a civilian organization set up during World War II, was ferrying military aircraft from factories to airfields, which freed up pilots for combat roles. The women’s section of the ATA flew Tiger Moths, but they soon changed to allow women to fly more types of aircraft, including Hurricanes, Spitfires, Lancasters, and Flying Fortresses. During the war, the ATA pilots delivered more than 309,000 aircraft. Eventually, the ferry aircraft were loaded with guns so they could defend themselves against German aircraft during ferrying deliveries (see https://www.kenleyrevival.org/content/history/women-at-war/air-transport-auxiliary#:~:text=The%20first%20eight%20women%20were,Patterson%2C%20and%20Winifred%20Crossley%20Fair).
Chapter 22
The Lend-Lease Act was passed on March 11, 1941, and allowed the United States to lend or lease ships, planes, or other war supplies to Allied nations—or those who were aligned in the defense of the US. For nearly a year, leading up to the signed Act, debates raged about whether the US could maintain neutrality while sending war supplies to other countries. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill requested help from President Roosevelt after Britain lost eleven destroyers to the German Navy. Although Roosevelt had promised in his 1940 presidential election campaign to keep America out of the war, that all changed when the Axis powers continued to gain ground. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson summed up his argument in favor of the Act by saying, “We are buying . . . not lending. We are buying our own security while we prepare. By our delay during the past six years, while Germany was preparing, we find ourselves unprepared and unarmed, facing a thoroughly prepared and armed potential enemy” (see https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/lend-lease-act).
Chapter 23
When the Japanese military launched their surprise attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, it sent America headlong into World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 US military personnel, including sailors, soldiers, and civilians. One thousand one hundred seventy-eight people were wounded, and 129 Japanese soldiers were killed. This set off a chain reaction around the world, and Allied countries declared war on Japan. On December 8, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Congress nearly unanimously approved Roosevelt’s declaration of war on Japan. The single, opposing vote against the declaration of war was by Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who said, “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else” (see https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor).
Chapter 24
While working at the ATA in England, Jacqueline Cochran experienced the trials of war firsthand. In her book, The Stars at Noon, Cochran shared her experience: “Bombing of London was heavy in those days. The Battle of Britain was on. The sky at night was full of flashing planes, searchlights, and antiaircraft fire accompanied by the incessant sound of the sirens and the explosions of bombs. One night just before I left England the biggest raid of all was on. My house seemed to be in a sort of grandstand position and I got out of bed, wrapped a blanket around me and sat on the front steps. It was a long fight. The panes in my windows were broken from nearby bomb explosions. A house went to pieces a block up the street and then another hit came just a block below me” (113).
Chapter 25
Teresa James, who became one of the original WAFS, was well qualified at 2,200 hours of flight time. Meeting Nancy Love for the first time at New Castle, Teresa observed: “This Base is new and not at all what I had expected an Army Base to be. Buildings and roads are under construction and mud is knee-deep all over the place. I don’t know what I expected, probably old red brick buildings with ivy clinging all over. . . . Nancy Love is everything I thought and more! Beautiful, capable and charming. Wish she would show up right now. Twice already she has put me at ease, and I could stand it again” (The Women with Silver Wings, Landdeck, 25).
Chapter 26
Teresa James received a telegram on September 6, 1942, inviting her to join the Ferrying Program. Signed by Nancy Love and Colonel Robert Baker, the telegram read: “Ferrying Division Air Transport Command is establishing group of women pilots for domestic ferrying. Necessary qualifications are high school education, age between 21 and 35, commercial license, 500 hours, 200 horsepower rating. Advise commanding officer Second Ferrying Group, Ferrying Division Air Transport Command, Newcastle County Airport, Wilmington, Delaware, if you are immediately available and can report at once at Wilmington at your own expense for interview and flight check. Bring two letters recommendation, proof of education and flying time” (The Women with Silver Wings, Landdeck, 11).
At a petite five foot one, Betty Gillies mastered the P-47 in early 1943 and observed, “It really was no problem fitting myself in the airplanes. I sat on a cushion, which with the parachute, put me up plenty high. And the only real long-legged airplanes were those for which I had the blocks. I could use a cushion behind me quite well in all but the P-38, the P-47 and the P-51. In those cockpits, the gunsights were too close to my face if I used a cushion behind me. The blocks Grumman made up gave my legs the length I needed. Grumman also made me a gadget to turn fuel valve in the P-38” (The Originals, Rickman, 140–141).
Chapter 27
Sacrifice was a normal and expected part of any war, and the Gillies family was no different. Betty Gillies’s husband, Bud, was exempt from the draft because of the work he did with Grumman Aircraft. Betty also wanted to do her part. Because her mother-in-law agreed to care for the children, Betty was able to serve by flying for the WAFS. In her words: “It was hard to leave Bud and the kids, but we managed to keep in close touch and see each other from time to time. TDY [temporary duty] at Farmingdale [1943–44] was a joy to me because then I could RON [remain overnight] at home. I loved flying and I was, and still am, very patriotic” (The Originals, Rickman, 51).
Chapter 28
In Betty Gillies’s diary, she wrote about her experience when she first arrived at New Castle and saw the BOQ barracks: “As I remember, my reaction to the physical properties of the base was mainly AWE! The huge airport with the fantastic flying machines scattered about. Our quarters were rather drafty. My room was on the north-west corner and one could see daylight through several of the cracks. But I loved it! BOQ 14 was right in the center of the base and next to the Officers’ Club, which we were privileged to enjoy” (The Originals, Rickman, 56).
Chapter 29
After Catherine Slocum left the WAFS Program, the remaining squadron consisted of Nancy Love, Betty Gillies, Cornelia Fort, Aline “Pat” Rhonie, Helen Mary Clark, Adela “Del” Scharr, Esther Nelson, Teresa James, Barbara Poole, Helen Richards, Barbara Towne, Gertrude Meserve, Florene Miller, Barbara Jane “B.J.” Erickson, Delphine Bohn, Barbara “Donnie” Donahue, Evelyn Sharp, Phyllis Burchfield, Esther Manning, Nancy Batson, Katherine “Kay” Rawls Thompson, Dorothy Fulton, Opal “Betsy” Ferguson, Bernice Batten, and Dorothy Scott. Soon to join were Helen “Little Mac” McGilvery and Kathryn “Sis” Bernheim. Even though Pat Rhonie left early on, she is still counted among the Original squadron of twenty-seven (Nancy Love, Rickman, 97–98).
Chapter 30
Once the WASP pilot training was moved to Sweetwater, Texas, the Pilot Training Program was divided into a two-phase system. During the 23 weeks of training, the trainee had 115 hours of flying and 180 hours of ground school. Their training also included “military training including military courtesy and customs, Articles of War, safeguarding of military information, drill and ceremonies, Army orientation, organization, military correspondence, chemical warfare and personal affairs” (Those Wonderful Women, 369). Ground school included “mathematics, physics, maps and charts, navigation, principles of flight, engines and propellers, weather, code, instrument flying, communications, and physical and first aid training” (369).
Chapter 31
It wasn’t until November 25, 1942, that newspapers in America began reporting that over two million Jews had been murdered. Up until then, US State Department officials considered the mass extermination of the European Jews only a war rumor. In response to learning that the deaths had indeed occurred, December 2 was declared an international day of mourning. And on December 17, Allied governments, including the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, released a “Declaration on Atrocities.” Although this declaration condemned the cruelty toward the Jews, there were no plans for rescue efforts made (see https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-united-states-and-the-holocaust-1942-45).
Chapter 32
Every WASP death was a tragedy, but Cornelia Fort’s struck Nancy’s core since Cornelia was an Original and she’d survived the Pearl Harbor attack by dodging a Japanese bomber. About that fateful December day, Cornelia said, “I jerked the controls away from my student and jammed the throttle wide open to pull above the oncoming plane. . . . He passed so close under us that our celluloid windows rattled violently, and I looked down to see what kind of plane it was. . . . The painted red balls on the tops of the wings shone brightly in the sun. I looked again with complete and utter disbelief” (Fly Girls, P. O’Connell Pearson, 31).
Cornelia was a strong advocate for freedom, a belief she carried with her into the WASP Program. Before her death, she wrote, “As long as our planes flew overhead, the skies of America were free and that’s what all of us everywhere are fighting for. And that we, in a very small way are being allowed to help keep that sky free is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever known” (Pearson, 95).
Chapter 33
The pilot classification list is as follows:
Class I—qualified to fly low-powered, single-engine airplanes (PT-17, PT-19, PT-26, Cubs)
Class II—qualified to fly twin-engine trainers and utility planes (UC-78, AT-9)
Class III—qualified to fly twin-engine cargo/medium transport planes and on instruments (C-47, C-60)
Class IV—qualified to fly twin-engine planes in advanced categories, such as attack planes, medium bombers, and heavy transports (B-25, A-20, A-24, A-25)
Class V—qualified to fly the biggest airplanes, four-engine bombers, and transports (B-17, B-24, B-29, C-54) and able to deliver them overseas
Class P-i—qualified to fly single-engine (P-51, P-47, P-40, P-39, and P-63) and twin-engine (P-38 and P-61), high-performance pursuits or fighters. The small “i” after the P denoted instrument rated. (See Over the Hump, Tunner, 27–28.)
Chapter 34
The Newsweek article titled “Coup for Cochran,” with the caption, “Miss Cochran and Mrs. Love: Which one bosses women fliers?” beneath their photographs, read in part: “Last week came a shake-up . . . even the Air Forces weren’t agreed on which of the photogenic female flying chiefs would outrank the other. The ATC maintained that Miss Cochran’s job was merely advisory and not superior to Mrs. Love’s executive post. But officials at Air Forces headquarters insisted that Miss Cochran had ‘highest authority’ over women pilots: ‘If the Air Transport Command is not already aware of this, they will have to be made aware of it’” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 130).
Chapter 35
In order to fulfill more duties with women pilots, Jacqueline Cochran sent a selection of those who graduated from Class 43-3 to Camp Davis, where they’d enter training for towing gunnery targets (see Nancy Love, Rickman, 132). WASP aviator Betty Jane Williams said, “We were basically used as target practice. We flew target sleeves behind our planes so ground troops could practice firing live ammunition at a moving target. A couple of times they almost blew me out of the sky.” Other duties included test-flying refurbished planes to see if they were ready to return to service (see https://www.dailynews.com/2022/05/28/thank-you-to-the-wasps-unsung-women-pilots-during-world-war-ii-who-served-and-died-for-freedom/).
Chapter 36
In Nancy Love’s B-4 bag, she carried a letter written by her husband. Bob’s letter was written to Major Roy Atwood, executive officer of the ATC European Wing in London, and it was supposed to be an enthusiastic introduction (see Nancy Love, Rickman, 142):
They should arrive in Prestwich presently, and due to the shortness of time will bring this letter. I have known these people for a good while and they are thoroughly competent as pilots, as well as having a background in aviation activities. They are being sent to perform a certain number of liaison with the ATA and other agencies interested in the ferrying of the aircraft to the UK.
I am sure you will find these two personalities pleasant, if not unusual, in that they arrive as they did, and sincerely hope you will give them your highly accredited effort in showing them around.
Very sincerely yours,
Robert M. Love
Colonel, G.S.C.
Deputy Chief of Staff
P.S. Incidentally one of them is my wife and the other a good friend.
Chapter 37
Nancy Love’s disappointment over the canceled B-17 transatlantic mission didn’t fade. Years later in 1955, she wrote, “I had always wanted to fly a B-17 and wondered if I’d be capable of handling an airplane of that size. . . . We started for Prestwick, Scotland, with a crew of three enlisted men and a lieutenant navigator. This dream was shattered for us when we were held overnight by weather in Goose Bay Labrador. Someone high up, who apparently disapproved us of in particular, heard about it and stopped the flight. Betty and I, raging and frustrated, were sent ignominiously home, while a male replaced us as pilots. That disappointment is still with me though later I managed to fly around the world, about half of the trip as a pilot” (Nancy Love, Rickman, 146).
Chapter 38
WASP aviator Iris Critchell remembered how the P-51s took ferrying precedence over most of the other aircraft in the urgency to get them delivered overseas: “The P-51s were such a high priority, in the fall of 1944 after we delivered to Newark, we no longer were allowed to detour and pick up a P-39 or P-40 on the way back to Long Beach. Instead, we were under orders to return to base immediately on the airlines or military transport the fastest way possible. At the Newark airport where we landed, the harbor was right there. The ships were pulled into the slips where they waited for our airplanes. We’d land the P-51 where the men were ready to load the aircraft onto the ships. Sometimes they were in such a hurry, they’d start to pull it by the tail to be loaded—with us still in the cockpit! They wanted them on their way to England or Italy as fast as possible” (Global Mission, H.H. Arnold, 358–359).
