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. Male pilots were in short supply, so into this 
vacuum stepped Nancy Love and her Women's Auxiliary Ferrying 
Squadron (WAFS). Initially the Army implemented both the WAFS 
program and Jacqueline Cochran's more ambitious plan to train 
women to do many of the military's flight-related jobs stateside. By 
1943, General Hap Arnold decided to combine the women's 
programs and formed the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), 
with Cochran as the Director of Women Pilots. Love was named the 
Executive for WASP.

    Nancy Love advised the Ferrying Division, which was part of the 
Air Transport Command, as to the best use of their civilian WASP 
ferry pilots. She supervised their allocation and air-training program. 
By example, Love won the right for women ferry pilots to transition 
into increasingly more complex airplanes. She checked out on 
twenty-three different military aircraft and became the first woman to 
fly several of them, including the B-17 Flying Fortress. Her World 
War II career ended on a high note: following a general's orders, she 
piloted a giant C-54 Army transport over the fabled China-Burma-
India "Hump," the crucial airlift route over the Himalayas.

    Young women serving today as combat pilots owe much to Love 
for creating the opportunity for women to serve. 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.

_________________________________________________________

SARAH BYRN RICKMAN is a former journalist with a Masters in 
Creative Writing.  Her freelance job and research with the 
International Women's Air and Space Museum produced first an 
award-winning WASP novel, Flight from Fear, followed by The 
Originals: The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron of World War II. 
She lives in Centerville, Ohio.


Number Four: North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series



What people are saying about this book

"Rickman has done her subject justice; this is a book rich in insight 
and opportunity."—Deborah G. Douglas, Curator, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology Museum

"Today's military pilots owe Nancy Love a debt of gratitude for 
breaking the ground that allowed all members of future generations 
to serve."—Brig. Gen. Linda K. McTague, Air National Guard