Stars and Stripes Salutes Women Airforce Service Pilots Page: 6 of 16
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Page 6 Wednesday, March 10, 2010 WOMEN AIRFORCE SERVICE PILOTS.
Jacqueline
Cochran
Creator and Director of WASP
We have proved
that women can be
trained as pilots
easily and used in
many ways in the
air effectively.
Jacqueline CochranThe emotions of happiness and
sorrow are pretty close together and
today, I am experiencing them both
at the same time, as well as the third
emotion of pride.
I am proud that we have been great-
ly honored today by the presence of
the Commanding General of our Army
Air Forces, General Arnold, and by the
presence also of General Yount and
General Kraus and General Williams.
Seldom can one see such a group of
stars clustered together-no greater
honor can the WASP receive than
this. General Arnold made this women
pilots program possible and followed it
with keen interest, and when General
Arnold gave the word "go" General
Yount turned in and gave every pos-
sible cooperation and support at all
times. These men deserve and have
our everlasting gratitude and thanks.
I am proud that the WASP have mer-
ited praise from General Arnold and
General Yount. They think the WASP
have done a good job. That makes me
happy.
Happiness also swells within me
from the knowledge that the WASP
have successfully completed their
two-fold mission. By two-fold, I mean
we have flown scores of millions of
miles in relieving the pilot shortage
and we have proved that women can
be trained as pilots easily and used in
many ways in the air effectively. What
the WASP have done is without prec-
edent in the history of the world.
As much as the WASP want to help
by flying, we can all be happy that our
Air Forces are now so built up and the
progress of the war is so favorable that
our services are no longer needed.
We would stay if it would shorten the
war by a day. We would go if our flying
would take flying time away from male
pilots who could Use the time to ad-
vantage in perfecting themselves whileawaiting assignment to combat duties.
But there is also the feeling of sor-
row that we are being demobilized,
that we are no longer to fly with-
and as a part of-our great Army Air
Forces.
My memory takes me back to the
days in the fall of 1942 when about
two dozen women pilots started to fly
for the Ferry Command, and another
two dozen started the training pro-
gram. That was down at Houston on
a field that had no housing or feeding
facilities. The flying equipment was
old, to say the least, but it was a start
and the results there gave us Avenger
Field. Since then, we have turned
out over one thousand well qualifiedAbout Jacqueline
Jacqueline Cochran holds a unique
position in history as founder and Di-
rector of the Women Airforce Service
Pilots.
Like the aircraft she loved to fly,
Jackie traveled higher and faster
into the frontiers of aviation than any
woman before, breaking through the
glass ceiling-and the sound barrier.
Even today she holds more distance
and speed records than any pilot liv-
ing or dead, male or female.
She never went to college-she
never even finished high school.
Instead, she read, she listened, she
asked questions-and she seldom if.
ever took "no" for an answer. She be-
lieved in hard work, persistence and
God (not necessarily in that order)
and she believed airplanes couldn't
tell the difference between a man and
a woman-only a good pilot from a
bad one.
"Rags to riches" doesn't even
begin to describe her story. FromWASP who have carried their own
weight in duties performed.
Without militarization there were
some inherent organizational weak-
nesses which might have been very
serious to the program except for the
loyalty and good sense of the indi-
vidual WASP. For that loyalty and good
sense you have my deepest thanks.
My greatest accomplishment in
aviation has been the small part I have
played in helping make possible the
results you have shown. I am sure that
if the Air Force needs the WASP back
at any time, they can count on us to
respond to the call with speed.
Thank you all-keep in touch with me.
December 7, 1944barefoot girl stealing chickens in
small-town Florida to decorated
pilot dining with kings, queens,
presidents, pashas and premiers,
Jackie was truly one-of-a-kind. She
went from sweeping up the beauty
parlor to founding her own success-
ful cosmetics company. She worked
as a shampoo girl and a dancer. She
had an audience with the Pope, was
best friends with Amelia Earhart and
played poker with Jimmy Doolittle
(leader of the first air raid by the
United States against a Japanese
home island during WWII). Jackie
was the first woman to enter Ja-
pan after World War II, a witness to
General Yamashita's surrender in the
Philippines and the trials at Nurem-
berg, and she flew to England and
convinced General Eisenhower to run
for President (and she was a Demo-
crat!)
Jackie Cochran was one in a
million-and she set the standard for
women who aspire to ever greater
heights."Fifinella" was the official mascot of WASP trainees.
This official mascot was designed by Walt Disney for its
film "The Gremlins" based on Roald Dahl's book. During
WWII, the WASP asked for permission to use "Fifinella" as
the official mascot and the Disney Company generously
agreed. Official Fifinella 'went to war' and was worn in the
form of patches - cloth or leather.
"Fifinella" was the name of the internal newsletter dis-
tributed among WASP trainees. When WASP moved to
Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Tex., Fifinella went with them,
as she was still their mascot (just not on the headline of their
newsletter). Her image was also on flight jackets and the "class
books" that were handed to the students as they graduated.{
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Page 6
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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Stars and Stripes. Stars and Stripes Salutes Women Airforce Service Pilots, newspaper, March 10, 2010; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth887633/m1/6/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.