The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) - March 21st, 2004

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wasp/wasp.htm ^

[Samwise]

The Foxhole should be required reading for history courses in all public schools.

I'll second that.

[WaterDragon]

Thank you so much for the WASP thread today, snippy. I've been sicker than a dog (and am looking like one, too! LOL) so did not work on this story.

[The Mayor]

When the people complained, it displeased the Lord. —Numbers 11:1

Instead of grumbling because you don't get what you want, be thankful you don't get what you deserve.

[WaterDragon]

Thank you so much for this thread on the WASPs, snippy. My flight instructor for a private pilot's license was Isabel Martell, of Molina, Oregon. This was in the early 1990's. I'd been told by a young instructor at Salem Airport that because of a slight limp from a childhood illness, I'd have to have special instruction (?). A co-worker at my office told me that her old high school journalism teacher was a flight instructor working out of Aurora Airport, and I decided to give her a call.

When I told Isabel about the slight limp, she barked "Can you walk? Do you drive a car?" And when I said, of course, she said "Then you can fly!" And sure enough, I did.

She was meticulous and demanding as a teacher, but all her students (and she had so many over the years!) adored her. She was in her seventies at the time I knew her, and as agile and as careful about her appearance as a teenager. She became a friend, as well, and I loved hearing about the WASPs from her.

She grew up on a farm in Nebraska, I think, and sold magazine subscriptions to pay for flying lessons while still in high school. She was graduated as a WASP at Avenger Field in the next-to-the-last class there.

She especially treasured her women students, because comparatively, there are many fewer women pilots than men, and she worked hard to get women interested in flying.

She became ill just before I got my license (she handed me over to another instructor). Congress had finally enacted a law giving the WASPs veteran status, so when she died, she was buried in the National Cemetary in Portland, in her WASP uniform. Several of her former students provided a 'fly-over' at the grave service.

Former WASPs and their children have a very active organization, giving speeches around the nation, and have established a museum in California, I think.

Thanks for recognizing the WASPs today, snippy.

[stand watie]

Frank deployed RIGHT ON TIME this am,@0700.

when the government FINALLY gets their act together, they CAN do things correctly!

free dixie,sw

[E.G.C.]

Congradulations OSU on beating Memphis 70-53 in the second round of the NCAA this afternoon.

[Soaring Feather]

Hi sw!!

Woo Hoo no more waiting for Frank.

free Dixie, bf

[Darksheare]

I'm in.

[Valin]

Jackie Cochran

Jacqueline Cochran was born sometime between 1905 and 1908 in Florida. Orphaned at birth and with almost no formal education, she went on to the top of her profession as the owner of a prestigious salon and developer of a line of cosmetics, Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics, which would later become her empire. Her soon-to-be husband, millionaire businessman Floyd Odlum, suggested she learn to fly in order to use her travel and sales time more efficiently. In two days she soloed and 18 days later had her pilots license.
Despite her lack of education, she mastered flying in a few weeks. Cochran soon owned her first airplane, a Travelair, and later a Northrop Gamma.

She was the first woman to enter the Bendix Race in 1935 and although she did not win it that year, she placed first in the women’s division and third overall in 1937.

As a test pilot, she flew and tested the first turbo-supercharger ever installed on an aircraft engine in 1934. During the following two years, she became the first person to fly and test the forerunner to the Pratt & Whitney 1340 and 1535 engines. In 1938, she flew and tested the first wet wing ever installed on an aircraft.

With Dr. Randolph Lovelace, she helped design the first oxygen mask, then became the first person to fly above 20,000 feet wearing one.

In 1940, she made the first flight on the Republic P-43, and recommended a longer tail wheel installation, which was later installed on all P-47 aircraft. Between 1935 and 1942, she flew many experimental flights for Sperry Corp., testing gyro instruments.

Cochran was hooked on flying and her taste for record setting was strong. She set three speed records, won the Clifford Burke Harmon trophy three times and set a world altitude record of 33,000 feet – all before 1940.

With World War II on the horizon, Cochran talked Eleanor Roosevelt (who, like Jackie, had been friendly with Amelia Earhart) into the necessity of women pilots in the coming war effort. Cochran was soon recruiting women pilots to ferry planes for the British Ferry Command, and became the first female trans-Atlantic bomber pilot. In 1942 Cochran recruited more than 1,000 Women's Airforce Service Pilots and supervised their training and service until they were disbanded in 1944. She went on to be a press correspondent and was present at the surrender of Japanese General Yamashita, was the first U.S. woman to set foot in Japan after the war, and then went on to China, Russia, Germany and even the Nuremburg trials.

Flying was still her passion, and with the onset of the jet age, there were new planes to fly and records to break. Access to jet aircraft was mainly restricted to military personnel, but Cochran, with the assistance of her friend Gen. Chuck Yeager, became the first woman to break the sound barrier in an F-86 Sabre Jet, and went on to set a world speed record of 1,429 mph in 1964. That was 1953. She was well over 50 years old at the time.

Ironically, it was Jackie Cochran who may have kept early women astronauts grounded. Testifying before the House of Representatives Science and Astronautics Committee in the early 1960s, Cochran warned NASA not to "waste a great deal of money" by taking "a large group of women in, because you lose them through marriage," according to an August 1994 Smithsonian magazine article.

After heart problems and a pacemaker stopped her fast-flying activities at the age of 70, Cochran took up soaring. She died in 1980, holding more speed and altitude records than anyone else in the world.

Some of her other achievements include setting an altitude record of 33,000 feet (1938), flying future president Lyndon Johnson to the Mayo clinic for emergency kidney surgery, saving his life (1948), serving as company pilot for Canadair, Lockheed and Northrop, earning the USAF Distinguished Flying Cross (1969), being named Honorary Fellow, Society of Experimental Test Pilots (1971) and being inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame (1971).

http://www.edwards.af.mil/articles98/docs_html/splash/feb98/cover/cochran.html

[Professional Engineer]

Ooo, a whole thread on the LuftSpankenTruppen. Awesome!

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy ma'am. I've been wondering if I was going to have to start "We miss Snippy and Sam, day ##" threads. Not yet.

[Samwise]

so when she died, she was buried in the National Cemetery in Portland, in her WASP uniform. Several of her former students provided a 'fly-over' at the grave service.

That is very cool--and very appropriate.

[Samwise]

Hi, P.E.!

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Samwise, Warrior Hobbit.

[Samwise]

LOL.

I feel like throwing spitballs or something while the teachers are gone, but it's almost no fun when we can't get it trouble.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Aeronaut for the picture of Liz. She has a great smile!

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening EGC.

[snippy_about_it]

Finfinella??? Must be before my time. ;-)

Good evening archy.

[snippy_about_it]

fifinella. okay I've now read your link. Cool!

[snippy_about_it]

Awwww. Thank you so much for your kind words. Sam has created a wonderful place here and I am happy to be his partner at the best place on FR imho. ;-)

We are on a mission and are encouraged when we hear comments such as yours.

My mom was a WAVE and speaks highly of her time in the service. We are thankful for your aunts service.

We do know that homeschoolers use our threads and we are very happy about that.