| The first women military pilots in the history of our country helped to ease the pilot shortage in World War II and then stepped quietly into the pages of history. |
| Historians of military aviation, digging into many documents previously classified as confidential or secret, will find the remarkable record of these women. |
| The need for aviators and airplanes during the war years of 1941 to 1944 taxed the nation's resources. Thus, the decision was made by the Army Air Forces to try an experimentto use women pilots. When the plea went out through newspapers and recruiters and into the ranks of civilian pilots that the AAF was recruiting women pilots, 25,000 young women volunteered. Of these, 1,830 were accepted and 1,074 completed flight training, having relearned flying "the Army way." They graduated, receiving their wings. |
| Known as WASPs, an acronym for Women Air Force Service Pilots, this group was formed into two segments in September 1942. The first was known as WAFS (Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron), and the second as WFTD (Women's Flying Training Detachment).1 |
| The WAFS, all exceptionally qualified pilots, were assigned directly to duties as civilian ferry pilots with the Ferrying Division, Second Ferrying Group, New Castle Army Air Base, Wilmington, Delaware.2 They were given no flight training other than that required to check out on military airplanes. They were led by twenty-eight-year-old and Vassar-trained Nancy Love, a pilot with an extensive background who was already familiar with military protocol and with the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command (ATC) in particular. She had been employed in the Operations Office of the Domestic Wing, Air Corps Ferrying Command, Baltimore, Maryland. Her husband, Major Robert M. Love, was Administrative Executive of the Ferrying Command.3 |
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