Viewing page 83 of 521
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[newspaper clipping]] The Sunday Star WASHINGTON, D.C., SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 10, 1931. BETSY ROSS CORPS OF WOMEN FLYERS SWORN IN SERVICE Admr. Moffett Makes Plea for Naval Building Program in Address. FECHET FORECASTS DAY OF FEMININE ACES Believes Some Women Aviators Will Take Part in Actual Combat in Next War. A stirring plea for support of the naval building program by Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, chief of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, and a prediction that women will play an important part in the air in the next war by Maj. Gen. James E. Fechet, chief of the Army Air Corps, featured the organization at Memorial Continental Hall yesterday afternoon of the Betsy Ross Corps, composed of women pilots who are in training to relieve men flyers for combat duty in event of national emergency. Members of the corps, including noted women pilots from all parts of the United States, were sworn in at yesterday's ceremony and will go into training camps to prepare themselves for flying duty in case of war or national emergencies such as flood or other disasters which require the emergency services of trained flyers. Marks Forward Step. Creation of the corps, Admiral Moffett declared, "marks another forward step in aviation and in national defense to an exent that we cannot realize today. Lack of public demand caused inaction in the last Congress, said Admiral Moffatt, adding that "even the American Legion was too busy pressing adjusted compensation to succeed in accomplishing anything for national defense." "One part of the program will be especially interesting to you," said Admiral Moffatt, "because it includes aircraft carriers and flying deck cruisers, with the necessary aircraft to go with them to insure our national security." It is most important, Admiral Moffatt said, that women should take their part, both in peace and in war, but especially in war, in the new field of aerial transportation, which forms a most powerful new weapon in warfare. "In time of peace," he said, "there are many positions that they can fill, both in the air and on the ground, and similarly in war. Would Be of Great Value "Women flyers, women with a knowledge of aviation, would be of immense value for the operation of these planes for releasing the men for flying at the front and for supporting their efforts there intelligently. It is the women behind the front that will win the war. "The next, and all future wars, will be settled in large measure by this new and yet terrible weapon, aircraft, and its successful use will be enhanced by organizations such as yours, the Betsy Ross Corps." Gen. Fechet told the women pilots that in the next war a very heavy burden will fall on the airmen of the country and that "there will be none too many of them." There will be a large field of usefulness for women in the air, he declared. "In the next war," he predicted, "there undoubtedly will be some outstanding women pilots who will engage in actual combat flying at the front, sharing the glories and dangers of men pilots." Women Invited to Races Clifford Henderson, executive director of the National Air Races for several years past and of the next of these national classics, to be held in Cleveland next August, invited the women pilots of the corps to make their first public appearance in the air at this year's races. Mrs. Opal Logan Kunz of New York, organizer of and national commander of the Betsy Ross Corps, who recently distinguished herself by her skill and courage in landing a crippled plane at Washington-Hoover Airport, announced the corps has been presented its own flying field near Orange City, Fla., the only field to be owned by women pilots. The field, given to the corps by Dr. Francis Dickinson of Chicago, she said, is a mile long by a half mile wide. Members of the corps in the Ninth Corps Area, on the Pacific Coast, already have begun active training, it was reported by Mildred Morgan, who flew from California to the National Capital in her own plane to attend the organization meeting. They have established a training camp on the estate of the corps area commander, Mrs. Florence Lowe Barnes, nationally known woman flyer, who has her own private airport. They have organized a ground school and are arranging for the purchase of three planes in addition to several planes owned by individual members. Creation of a flying cadet corps for the training of women students as a step to membership in the corps when they qualify for their pilots' licenses has been undertaken, she said. On the way across the country she visited a newly formed corps area group at Kansas City. Plan Flying Tour. Mrs. Kunz, Mrs. Barnes and Miss Morgan are planning a flying tour of inspection in their own planes of the various corps area units of the Betsy Ross Corps this Summer, it was announced. There now are active members in all nine corps areas, Mrs. Kunz said, the areas being identical with those of the Army. The members of the corps were welcomed by Mrs. Lowell Fletcher Hobart, president general of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. A United States flag was presented to the corps by Mrs. Eleanor Washington Howard, last member of the Washington family born at Mount Vernon, the standard being received for the corps by Miss Mary Goodrich of Connecticut. A corps flag was presented by Mrs. Eleanor Patterson and was accepted by Miss Morgan. The members of the corps were sworn in by Capt. Gill Robb Wilson, former Army chaplain, who is corps chaplain and only male member of the organization. Prior to the ceremonial at Memorial Continental Hall members of the corps and their guests held a luncheon meeting at Washington-Hoover Airport. [[/newspaper clipping]] [[newspaper clipping]] LADYBIRDS MEET FOR RITE IN MAY Betsy Ross Corps the National Organization of Women Fliers for Emergency. Wearing their distinctive and quasi-military uniforms for the first time, the ladybirds of the Betsy Ross Corps will gather at Washington May 9 for their first formal meeting and flag presentation exercises, their National Commander, Mrs. Opal Logan Kunz, announced today. Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, is to be the guest of honor of the organization of women fliers. He has greatly encouraged the Betsy Ross Corps in its notion of perfecting a group of girl fliers who, in the event of war, could take over the commercial flying jobs now filled by men, thus releasing for active service at the front some of the most valuable pilots now in the game. As a result, when the Betsy Ross Corps meeting is called to order in Memorial Continental Hall, the Daughters of the American Revolution building at the capital, Admiral Moffett's name will be put up for honorary membership in the organization. So will that of Mrs. Lowell Fletcher Hobart, President General of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, who has given her official approval to the Betsy Ross Corps and is cooperating with it in every way. Members of the corps are to be sworn in by the Rev. Gil Rob Wilson, chaplain of the organization, pastor of the 4th Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N. J., and a former member of the Lafayette Escadrille. [[/newspaper clipping]]
