This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt Mae Moss (MayDay)
to remember
Cochran, Jacqueline, Col USAF(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Pensacola, Florida
Last Address Indio, California
Date of Passing Aug 09, 1980
Location of Interment Coachella Valley Public Cemetery - Coachella, California
In 1942, Cochran, at the request of Army General Henry "Hap" Arnold, organized the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) to train civilian women pilots in anticipation of a shortage of military pilots during the war. The WFTD was merged with Nancy Love's Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS) to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) with Cochran as director.
From 1943 to 1944, 1,074 women trained and flew over 60 million miles, ferrying aircraft, towing targets, and performing other administrative flying duties. The WASP were disbanded in 1944,but were given retroactive military status in 1977.
Following the war, Cochran continued to establish speed records into the 1960's. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier, doing so in 1953 in an F-86 Sabre jet. She was a fourteen-time winner of the Harmon Trophy, awarded to the best female pilot of the year. Cochran flew the Beech Staggerwing and Lockheed F-104, examples of which are displayed, respectively, in the Golden Age of Flight and outside the Planetarium.
Cochran authored two autobiographies - "The Stars at Noon" and, with Mary Ann Bucknam Brinley, "Jackie Cockrane"
Other Comments:
.................. "We live in the wind and sand, and our eyes are on the stars."
~ WASP Motto
Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) flew non-combat missions during World War II to free men for combat. Although the Air Force trained only about 1,200 WASP, they had an enormous impact on World War II aviation.
Women pilots assigned to the Air Transport Command ferried forty-three types of aircraft, including small primary trainers, the fastest fighters, heavy transports, and huge bombers, from factories to bases throughout the United States and Canada. They towed targets, took meteorologists up for weather observations, transported equipment, broke in engines, and flew as couriers.
WASP went through AAF Training Command primary, intermediate and advanced training at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas. Their twenty-seven week curriculum was the same as that given to aviation cadets. They received additional transitional instruction at the air base to which they were assigned.
Although WASP were on Civil Service status, they were entitled to the privileges of officers when on an Army base and had to conform to military regulations when on duty. WASP wings were the standard AAF silver wings with a lozenge in the center.
The mascot on their patch was called Fifinella; she was cute, agile, and always ready to take up the flying challenge. This epitomized the spirit that was the WASP who served this country very well in a time of need. Their contributions are documented and stand for spirit that made this country the great nation we are.
