Fly Girls – Part 4 – And so it begins

One very annoyed Jackie Cochran-

“General Arnold, Please,” Jackie Cochran said over the phone. She was nice to the secretary. After all, it wasn’t her fault about what had happened.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Cochran,” The woman said. “General Arnold is out sick.”

Really, she must have thought. I was about to let him have it with both barrels. He promised me he wouldn’t approve anything until they’d had a chance to talk.

Then she realized that maybe he was dodging the phone call.

“When is he expected back?’

I’m sure the secretary almost told her that she wasn’t a doctor and didn’t know. But she ventured he’d be back the following day.

“I’m on my way to Washington,” Jackie said. “Tell him I want to see him when I get there.”

What Jackie Cochran didn’t know was that General Hap Arnold had nothing to do with it.

She met with him and noticed right away that he didn’t look all that good. He was pale and looked tired. She kicked mentally

“General Arnold?’ she asked. She’d cooled down some and decided an olive branch was better than a whipping stick. “Are you alright?”

“I’m okay,” he said. “Look Jackie. This all happened while I was out and it happened at a different level what my approval wasn’t needed.”

What General Arnold was talking about was Nancy Love and her WAFS program.

What had happened was one of those things where all the stars aligned just right. Everything fell in place, and it made all kinds of sense to just do it.

Early 1942.

America is at war. Robert Love, a major in the reserves, is called up. He’s put to work at the Munitions Building in Washington D.C.. His exact title is Deputy chief of Staff – Ferrying Division. Ferrying what? yo guessed it, airplanes.

Nancy followed her husband and got a job in the office of Col. William Tunner, the same man her husband worked for. Nancy had a great way of beating the morning commute. She flew in everyday to work. That wasn’t lost on her new boss.

Col Tunner spoke with Robert about it.

“Major, I’m pulling women pilots together to handle the ferrying of aircraft from the factories to the airfields or ports. I was wondering if your wife would be interested,”

“You know Nancy submitted a proposal to do just that not long ago,” Robert replied.

“So I heard. Think she’d be interested?”

I’m sure Robert smiled. “That’s something you need to ask her, Sir.”

He did. She dusted off her proposal, and submitted it. Like Jackie Cochran, she felt her girls should have commissions and be part of the Woman’s Army Corp (WAC).

That was quickly dismissed.

Not to be detoured, Col Tunner hired Nancy as Executive of Women Pilots. Her job. Round up pilots and start moving planes. By September of 1942, she’d rounded up almost 30 pilots. They formed Women’s Auxillery Ferrying Squadron or WAFS as history came to call them.

And that brings us back to Jackie Cochran and General Hap Arnold–

“What’s done is done,” General Arnold said. “But I still need you to do something for me?”

“What is that?”

“I can’t expect the ladies to climb into a B-17 or fighter and just fly it. Someone needs to train them.”

“And that someone is me?” Jackie asked.

“Yes.”

And just like that, the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) was formed.

Jackie Cochran headed for Texas to form and run the WFTD.

Her job?

Give Nancy the pilots to fly the planes.