Jackie Cochran

by Den

Jackie Cochran is another woman of honor that comes to mind. During WW II America was needing pilots for fighters and bombers in both the European and Pacific theatres. Jackie had been over to England and saw the women were ferry aircraft which freed the men to fight against the Germans in the RAF. She brought this idea home seeing that there were a lot of young men ferry aircraft in the US. Jackie had two "big name" allies in Washington which she approached with the idea of allowing women to ferry planes thus freeing the men to go do the fighting (which needless to say didn't sit well with many of them).

The two people that were instrumental in helping Jackie start what would become known as the WASP were Gen. "Hap" Arnold, Commander of the AAF, and Eleanor Roosevelt. It wasn't easy and she (Jackie) had to get through a lot of "red tape" but soon the WASP were formed.

The WASP were never recognised (until about 50 years later) as a military organization and, as such, were not given the benefits that were provided to military personnel. If one of her pilots died in the line of duty, they were send back to there home at the cost of the military. Instead, the women of the organization kept a "kitty" for such things and the body was always accompanied by one of the members. The women picked to ferry the aircraft were a select few who went through a rigorous training program and selection process. As the war progressed, these women also became involved in target towing and other similar activities (sometimes shot down by errant gunner trainees.

When some of the men refused to fly certain aircraft, such as the P40 and P38 because they viewed them as unsafe, Jackie asked "Hap" to let his WASP fly them to the bases believing that when the men saw that a woman was flying one of these "unsafe" aircraft, they'd get the message that if a woman can do it, so can I. It worked.

So not only does Jackie get a place of honor in my book, so do all the WASP. A book called "On Final Approach" tells the entire story of the development of the WASP.