Nancy Love And The WASP Ferry Pilots Of World War II (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir)

354 Pages·2008·2.09 MB·English

by  Sarah Byrn Rickman

Nancy Love
and the
WASP Ferry Pilots
of World War II
Nancy Harkness Love in WAFS flying gear, 1942.
Courtesy the Love family; electronic image courtesy the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Nancy Love
and the
WASP Ferry Pilots
of World War II
by Sarah Byrn Rickman
Number 4 in the North Texas
Military Biography and Memoir Series
University of North Texas Press
Denton, Texas
©2008 Sarah Byrn Rickman
Foreword by Deborah G. Douglas© 2008 University of North Texas Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Permissions:
University of North Texas Press
P.O. Box 311336
Denton, TX 76203-1336
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
z39.48.1984. Binding materials have been chosen for durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rickman, Sarah Byrn.
Nancy Love and the WASP ferry pilots of World War II / by Sarah Byrn
Rickman.
p. cm. — (North Texas military biography and memoir series; no. 4)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57441-241-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Love, Nancy Harkness, 1914–1976. 2. Women Airforce Service Pilots
(U.S.)—Biography. 3. United States. Army Air Forces. Air Transport Com-
mand. Ferrying Division—Biography. 4. World War, 1939–1945—Aerial
operations, American. 5. World War, 1939–1945—Transportation—United
States. 6. United States. Army Air Force Transportation. 7. Air pilots—
United States—Biography. 8. Women air pilots—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
D790.5.L68R53 2008
940.54'4973092—dc22
[B]
2007039381
Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II is Number 4 in the
North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series
Cover photo: Nancy Harkness Love in the cockpit of a Fairchild PT-19 Army
Primary Trainer. Photo taken circa September 1942. Photo from the Nancy
Harkness Love Private Collection held by her daughters and used with their
permission. Electronic image courtesy the National Aviation Hall of Fame,
Dayton, Ohio.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of Joan Hrubec, director
and later curator of the International Women’s Air and Space
Museum (IWASM), who planted the seed that led to its creation
and whose incredible aviation memory bank I mined as I re-
searched and wrote.
We lost Joanie February 17, 2007.

Contents
List of Photographs of Nancy Harkness Love . . . . . . . ix
Foreword by Deborah G. Douglas . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1: Learning to Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 2: Learning to Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3: Stretching Her Wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 4: Tricycle Gear Test Pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 5: War in Europe! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Chapter 6: Wanted: Ferry Pilots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 7: Two Women Pilot Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Chapter 8: The Originals Gather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 9: Growing Pains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 10: Killed in Service of Her Country. . . . . . . 116
Chapter 11: Transport and Transition . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 12: A B-17 Bound for England . . . . . . . . . 134
Chapter 13: Change in the Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Chapter 14: Pursuit School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Chapter 15: The Quest for Militarization. . . . . . . . . 172
Chapter 16: In Pursuit, Coast to Coast . . . . . . . . . . 185
Chapter 17: Militarization Denied . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Chapter 18: Denouement of the WASP . . . . . . . . . . 205
Chapter 19: Flying the Hump. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Chapter 20: Peace, Prosperity, and Parenthood. . . . . . 234
Chapter 21: Life on the Vineyard. . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Chapter 22: Empty Nest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Chapter 23: Fighting Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Appendix: Biographical Overview of
Nancy Harkness Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Glossary of Military and Airplane Terms. . . . . . . . . 301
Glossary of Airplane Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Photographs of
Nancy Harkness Love
Page
In WAFS flying gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
Age three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
With her horse, Daisy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
At age sixteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
With Jack Ray’s Great Lakes trainer . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Joins Airmarking team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
With Bob and the Staggerwing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Steps out of the Gwinn Aircar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
With Joseph Marr Gwinn and Frank Hawks . . . . . . . . 56
With Gen. Harold L. George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
With Betty Gillies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
With Helen Mary Clark and Col. Robert M. Baker . . . . 94
In WAFS dress uniform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
With Gertrude Meserve, Catherine Slocum,
Del Scharr, and Barbara Towne . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Five of her original WAFS: Barbara Towne, Cornelia Fort,
Evelyn Sharp, B.J. Erickson, and Bernice Batten . . . . 108