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WhereAreTheyNow? By Richard C. Barnard [[image]][/image]] USAF photos Jackie Cochran: [---] Famed Pilot Says Women Shouldn't Fight Photo by Chuck Scordino [[image]][[/image]] [[image]][[/image]] Jacqueline Cochran (top) stands in front of a USAF T-38 after winning the prestigious Harmon International Aviation Trophy in 1962. Cochran, in her 35 years of flying, won more speed, distance, and altitude records than any other pilot, man or woman. Today, (left) at about 67, she makes her home on a date ranch in Indio, Calif. Cochran (right) poses in the 1940's. TO Jacqueline Cochran, today's headlines must seem like a page out of a history book: "Combat Roles for U.S. Women Urged," "Women Receive AF Okay to Become Pilots for First Time," "First Women AF Pilots Make Aviation History." Jackie Cochran began making aviation history 40 years ago. During her 35 years as s flier, she won more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot, man or woman. Cochran was the first woman to fly a bomber across the North Atlantic. Be-fore the U.S entered World War II, she organized a group of 25 American women pilots to fly with the British Air Transport Auxiliary in England. After that, she was director of Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) for the U.S Army Air Forces in 1943-44, a time of much debate and some bitterness over the proper role for women pilots during wartime. And now, this pioneer woman flier is leading the political fight to overturn the federal laws that combat jobs for women--right? Wrong. Despite her leadership role during the war, the world's top woman pilot says that women should never serve in combat. The idea violates her personal conception of a women's proper role in society. "There are some things that I don't think women are permitted to do, says Cochran. "I've always assumed that we would never put women into combat. If for no other reason than because women are the bearers of children, they should not be in combat," she says. Cochran was a better pilot than most men. She beat them in speed and distance races time after time. But that doesn't mean that women should serve in combat, she says. For her, putting women into combat is not a question of ability. It is a question of propriety. It is something that just isn't done. "Imagine your daughter as a ground soldier, sleeping in the fields and ex- See page 20 18 The Times Magazine/January 23, 1978
