
Love was a well-liked woman by people who knew her. She enjoyed rum and Cokes, smoked and knew how to dance well, but was always seen as a lady. She was intelligent and witty and was respected by men and women alike due to her complete knowledge of airplanes. Love was the youngest woman in the United States to earn her pilot’s license, at the age of sixteen. When the Americans began constructing planes for Britain, she decided to try out ferrying planes to Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was a very qualified pilot, logging over a thousand hours and licensed to fly six hundred horsepower planes. During this experience of ferrying, she began to think of plans for a program that would allow women to participate.
Like
Cochran, Love received the same answer from the military, a good idea but
the military was not ready for women pilots. She again told her desire
to start a female ferrying squad to Colonel William Turner, the Commanding
Officer of the Ferrying Division. After conferencing with his staff
and headquarters, the AAF finally decided to take the idea to heart.
Colonel Robert Baker liked the idea and suggested that his base, New Castle
AAFB in Delaware, near several major aircraft factories, had some available
barracks for up to fifty women and he could be ready for them as soon as
July 1942. Since pilots were not covered under the WAC agreement that gave
women military benefits, Turner and Love decided to make the new pilots,
civil service employees. This was to be temporary until the WAC pilot
amendment bill was passed in congress. The women would earn $250
a month plus per diem. This was $50 less per month then the male
ferrying pilots were earning. Although they were apart of the civil
service the women were still expected to act and live in a military style,
by living as a unit and wearing uniforms. Their duties would consist of
ferrying primary and liaison planes in the continental United States.
Arnold finally gave his approval of the program September 5 and on September
10, 1942 the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) was publicly announced.
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