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[[cutoff]] may be small, but many more will [[cutoff]], and soon. All these women pilots, with the exception of the first WAF squadron of 25, have been, and are now being trained by the AAF Training Command. When they graduate they are eligible for membership in the WAFS. The two organizations, although working in close liaison, are independent setups. There has been some public confusion about the two groups and in some quarters it is not yet entirely clear just who does which jobs. Here it is: The Women's Flying Training Detachment, organized by Jacqueline Cochran, now Director of Women Pilots, AAF, is a part of the Training Command; it trains the girls at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas. The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, on the other hand, is an operating unit which takes these pilots and puts them to work. A part of the Air Transport Command, it is headed by Nancy Harkness Love, now executive for the WAFS on the staff of the commanding general, Ferrying Division, ATC Headquarters of the unit is in Cincinnati, Ohio. To date, four classes of AAF-trained graduates have joined the WAFS. They undergo a short period of Ferrying Division transitional training and then begin checking out on the different types of ships they will be called on to ferry. As it now stands, a girl will be allowed to check out on any plane she is capable of flying. Chances are this won't mean the multi-engined class, for there are many ships just too difficult physically for the average woman to handle. Besides, they will be kept plenty busy with one and two-engined aircraft. The domestic ferrying of combat planes has become an everyday job for the fair sex in the AAF. A pilot must make five deliveries of a particular plane before she can go on to be the next ship in a graduated scale based, presumably, on the complexity of the aircraft. In the Long Beach sector, for instance, this scale begins with the PTs and BTs, then graduates to A-24s, P-51s, C-47s, C60s, B-25s, A20s and finally P-38s. This particular range may very in different ferrying sectors. The WAFS is split up at present into four ferrying squadrons, located at Wilmington, Dallas, Detroit and Long Beach. Members of the original group of 25 are stationed at each spot. Neither the WAFS nor the WFTD is as yet a military organization, so both pilots and trainees are on civil service status. Pilots receive $250 a month plus $6 per diem on ferrying missions. They live in regular officers' barracks turned over to them for that purpose and enjoy all the privileges of officers. They wear a standardized "attire" of their own consisting of a grey-green jacket, slacks or skirt, tan shirt and an overseas cap. On ferrying trips they may wear just shirt and slacks or GI cold weather flying suits, leather jackets and, of course, parachutes and head-sets. They take no oxygen equipment since, like domestic ferry pilots of the opposite sex, they seldom fly above 12,000 feet on ferrying missions. Proud as they are of flying combat ships, they know quite well that merely ferrying a ship is one thing and putting it through its tactical paces is quite another. They are content to leave the acrobatics and the combat tactics to the men in the Air Force they serve. The girls merely "pick up a ship, fly her, set her down." On return trips to their bases after delivering aircraft, the WAFS usually wear their regulation jacks and skirts, and are forever being taken for airline stewardesses. They are a little tired of being asked in airports, waiting for commercial liners to leave, whether "lunch is served on Flight 2" or "How long do we stay in Albuquerque?" or "Can I get a plane out of Kansas City tonight?" If the answer is merely "I don't know," the passenger often goes away muttering under his breath about inefficiently run organizations and letters of complaint to the present. Nearly all of the WAFS waking hours are spent in uniform. Since they are always on call, they figure there is a little percentage in wearing their civilian clothes. When one squadron first went to Dallas, they were there three weeks before anyone saw a single woman pilot out of uniform. One night there was a dance at the Officers' Club. The girls went all-out for the occasion and donned long, flowing evening coiffures, pinned flowers on their shoulders and arrived at the party. It was ten minutes before anyone recognized them. Women ferry pilots have little or no private life. They work between fifty and sixty hours a week, often longer. One girl spent only four nights on her home base in six weeks. B-4 bags packed at all times, they must be ready to go on a mission on an hour's notice -- even less. When they'll get back to base is anybody's guess. In winter flights the chances of being grounded somewhere along the way are high. Last December one pilot, ferrying a PT-13, was weather in for 21 days in a small mid-western town. At other times the in-between stops provide their own drama. Last winter, four WAFS grounded in an Illinois town narrowly escaped injury when a violent explosion blew up a garage directly opposite their dining place. The same group [[images - two photographs]] [[caption]] Last minute map check in the WAFS comfortable "alert room." Left to right: Gertrude Meserve, Nancy Batson, Terese James, Esther Nelson, Dorothy Fulton and (kneeling) Betty Gillies, command of the WAFS for the 2nd Ferrying Group, Wilmington, Delaware. Below, Evelyn Sharp brings in a C-47. [[/caption]] 11 Air Force, September, 1943
Transcription Notes:
I wasn't sure how to represent the corner that didn't get scanned. Also, I'm not sure if the bold section "The domestic ferrying.." should be represented another way or elsewhere.