25 or 28 WAFS? Just How Many?

There has always been some discrepancy regarding the correct number of women who made up the original group of WAFS. I went to historian Sarah Bryn Rickman for the answer --

28 is correct. Nancy Love recruited 24 other experienced women pilots to ferry airplanes BY THE END OF DECEMBER 1942. Actually, the final recruit of the 25 was Dorothy Scott and she arrived in Wilmington DE on Nov. 21. HOWEVER, three more were signed up by January 1943: Sis Bernheim, Helen McGilvery and Lenore McElroy for a total of 28. Remember, Nancy Love was one of the 25 - also the 28.

After that - by order of General Arnold - all women who wished to fly with the group that eventually became know as the WASP had to go through training at the Army flight school first located in Houston TX and then, as of March 1943, moved to Avenger Field in Sweetwater TX.

The WASP are made up of the original 28 WAFS and the 1074 women who graduated from the training school in Texas. The first class entered training in Houston on Nov. 16, 1942 and the final class graduated on Dec. 7, 1944. -- Total 1102.

Until August 1943, the girls in training were known as WFTDs (Women's Training Flying Detachment). I've heard some WASP from the 1943 classes call it Woofteds and also as Woofteddies.

Sarah

********************************************

I might add that the first class of WFTDs to graduate from flight training school in Houston were sent out to various bases to fly on May 10, 1943.

Oceans, Barriers and Ceilings ...

Firsts matter to Americans - Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic - Yeager broke the sound barrier - Armstrong walked on the moon.

On October 22, 1942 a group of six ordinary / extraordinary women flew six tiny L4 Cubs from the Piper Aircraft factory in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania to Long Island, New York. On that day six WAFS, Betty Gillies - Cornelia Fort - Pat Rhonie - Helen Mary Clark - Del Scharr - and Teresa James broke an aviation glass ceiling. They were the first women to officially fly United States military aircraft.

Flying a little Cub from Pennsylvania to New York may not seem like a big feat compared to Lindbergh's or Yeager's, but in all honesty - it truly was - considering those fellas had no glass ceiling to break ... only an ocean to cross and a barrier to breach.