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SHORT HISTORY OF THE WOMENS AUXILLIARY FERRYING SQUADRON (WAFS)

By Ms. Teresa D. James

1942

I was a flight instructor in Pittsburg, Pa. flying for Tonak Aviation. I received a telegram from General "Hap" Arnold asking me to report for a flight check at New Castle Army Air Base, Wilmington, Del., for possible employment as a Service Pilot to ferry Army aircraft from factories to air bases. I was the ninth women to check in- September 20, 1942. The total reporting for flight checks were about thirty women, of which twenty five were accepted. The qualifications at this time were: Commercial license, 250 flying hours cross country, and a 200 horsepower rating. This was an experimental squadron being formed of experienced women pilots with no preliminary training other than the four to six weeks of transition and concurrent ground school to acquaint them with the operation of military aircraft, military organization and procedures, etc. 

These twenty five women flew for nine months, wore gray uniforms and were known as WAFS- Women's Auxilliary Ferrying Squadron. We were under command of Mrs. Nancy Love. This group and their proven abilities constituted a definite preliminary step in the development of the large scale USAAF women pilot program that followed, the WASP.

The objectives in activating the women pilot program by the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Force was; (1) To see if women could serve as military pilots and, if so, to form the nucleus of an organization that could be rapidly expanded. (2) To release male pilots for combat. During the time the WAFS were flying, a training program was started in Houston, Texas, which was excepting women who could show the required number of hours of certified flying time.

1943

On August 5, 1943 the women pilot trainees and the WAFS were merged into one organization known as the WASP - Women Air Force Service Pilots. A total of 1,074 women in the WASP flew approximately sixty million miles for the AAF. They flew every type of airplane used by the AAF, from the small primary trainers to the Superfortress, B-29.

As a result of my service of the 27 months in the WASP I was commissioned a major in the Air Force in 1950. I was very active in the Air Force Reserve until my retirement in 1974.