Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series)

Rickman, Sarah Byrn

ISBN 10: 1574412418 / ISBN 13: 9781574412413

Verlag: University of North Texas Pres, 2008

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 1574412418-VB

Inhaltsangabe:

She flew the swift P-51 and the capricious P-38, but the heavy, four-engine B-17 bomber and C-54 transport were her forte. This is the story of Nancy Harkness Love who, early in World War II, recruited and led the first group of twenty-eight women to fly military aircraft for the U.S. Army.
When the United States entered World War II, the Army needed pilots to transport or "ferry" its combat-bound aircraft across the United States for overseas deployment and its trainer airplanes to flight training bases. Most male pilots were assigned to combat preparation, leaving few available for ferrying jobs. Into this vacuum stepped Nancy Love and her civilian Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).
Love had advocated using women as ferry pilots as early as 1940. Jackie Cochran envisioned a more ambitious plan, to train women to perform a variety of the military's flight-related jobs stateside. The Army implemented both programs in the fall of 1942, but Jackie's idea piqued General Hap Arnold's interest and, by summer 1943, her concept had won. The women's programs became one under the name Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), with Cochran as the Director of Women Pilots and Love as the Executive for WASP.
Nancy Love believed that the women attached to the military needed to be on equal footing with the men and given the same opportunities to prove their abilities and mettle. Young women serving today as combat pilots owe much to Love for creating the opportunity for women to serve. Her foresight and tenacity nearly seventy years ago helped ensure their future. Now author Sarah Byrn Rickman, aviation historian, presents the first full-length biography of Nancy Love and her role in the WAFS and WASP programs, Her book will appeal to all with a love of flight.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

Sarah Byrn Rickman left her newspaper editor job in 1989 to write books. A Masters in Creative Writing, coupled with access to the WASP and WAFS through her freelance job with the International Women’s Air and Space Museum, produced first an award-winning WASP novel, Flight from Fear , and then The Originals: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron of World War II. While writing The Originals, Rickman came to realize the need for founder Nancy Love’s biography. Rickman was awarded the Seventh Annual Combs Gates Award by the National Aviation Hall of Fame for her outstanding work on the women pilots of World War II.

For more information about the author and her book, please visit www.sarahbyrnrickman.com

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of ...
Verlag: University of North Texas Pres
Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
Einband: hardcover
Zustand: As New