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that I beef about-one has to earn their right to live! You can't just arrive on this earth to make it filthy and dirty,"

"Maybe you'll say, with the attitudes today, that a man shouldn't be in combat. I'd like to be in combat. It's our country and we should defend it and our principles."

Marriage, Women and Women's Lib

In these turbulent times, any women who can stay married 32 years to the same man (finances Floyd B. Odlum) and still be able to say, "I'm married to a fantastic, fabulous man, I mean, he's the most amazing person in the world", TRO felt was qualified to comment on marital relationships:

"I think too many people start out-men and women-with the idea that they're going to make each other over. They're going to be different people and so on. They haven't really formulated a good concept of what marriage is supposed to be before they start."

What, do you think, is a woman's place in our society?

Oh, women have a very important place. they rule the world! They've rules kings. I don't know why people worry about woman's place!

"Women have the same intelligence as men, they have the same ability. But they should not forget that they're women. They should populate the world; they should have a women's place in the world or they're not going to be any good when they're 40.

"I am trying to say that we all have our place in life, but people Have forgotten what their places are."

How can a wife help her husband's career?

"A wife, If her husband wants her to, can interest herself enough in his business to be a sounding board for his ideas. She can answer him or not answer him, whichever she finds out is helpful to him. She can have his home beautifully run so he can call her at a minute's notice and say, 'Sorry, dear, but I have to bring four people home for dinner.' A man who brings people into his home is proud of his home; he's proud of his wife or he wouldn't do that in the first place. She is being helpful-but not if she starts interfering or meddling.

"I've seen women who were very harmful, I thought, to their husband's careers. In the first place, I think any woman [[?]] at any time, meddles in her husband's affairs, goes to his office, gets involved with the people he employs or he has subordinate to him-or even 'sparks' the boss-is for the birds! I don't think a wife should even interfere in her husband's business life or get involved with his business associates. 

"Mr. Odlum had multiple companies that he controlled and we built our ranch-part of it-to take care of his business life. I hired a woman to do all of that. Many times I would never come out for dinner. If I did, I'd have a drink with him and go on about my way. Naturally, I had flying to talk about which didn't bother anybody-though I didn't talk about that very much either. Now, since he's retired, I meet some of these people I did like and they say, 'Gee, I didn't know you were such a warm, friendly person,' I reply, 'I don't interfere with my husband's business.'"

[[image]]
In years of flying in air races and other competitions, "Jackie Cochran won many trophies, which she shows here. 

Although Jacqueline Cochran scoffs at the notion of Women's Lib ("Liberation? Liberated from what?") she nevertheless represents what probably [[?]] Woman's Libber would like to be: an independent personality, with her own identity very clearly [[?]] rate from her husband and his career. In this [[?]] TRO asked: What do you feel about the opportunities open to a female in commercial aviation? Should [[?]] be restricted to the role of stewardess and not [[?]] as a pilot, engineer, etc.?

Today to qualify a 707 pilot, the airlines spend somewhere near $200,000 on a man. To realize their investment, he must work all of the 20-plus years [[?]] before his retirement. A woman may want to have a family during that period. Would you want to fly behind a pregnant pilot? But women certainly could be trained as engineers."

What of a women's physical stamina-can she perform usefully as an astronaut?

"I think women definitely have more stamina than men, Childbearing alone bears that out. Women can stand more pain. Imagine caring that extra weight around for seven months!"

What do you feel about mixed (man and woman) space crews?

"It wouldn't work in the three-man crews. I've talked to the men and they don't like the idea. It barely works with the men. They would need more space than they have now-to walk around, more privacy, etc."

Do you think an all-woman crew could function as well, do the tasks the men do, etc.?

"I think so, yes. And the reason I say so: In World War II we had a problem with the B-26 Martin built. I put women in B-26's-150 of them. They did about 70,000 operational hours with one minor accident and not a single fatality. They were always all-women crews and they worked very well. It was a very difficult aircraft because we didn't understand it (it really wasn't difficult except that people didn't understand it), and they did extremely well.

30       The Retired Officer • September 1971