| This dissertation focuses on World War II women military pilots and their disbandment. It investigates the actions of Henry H. Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, and Jacqueline Cochran, WASP Director. By the early 1940s both Nancy Harkness Love and Jacqueline Cochran proposed an elite and small corps composed of very highly experienced female aviators. General Arnold initially turned both women down, but faced with growing pilot shortages he changed his position. He authorized Love's proposal for a small cadre of twenty-six highly experienced women pilots, but he insisted they be brought on as civilians, not as military.;Due to continued male aviator shortages, and the women's abilities as proven military aviators, Arnold ordered their numbers increased. Jacqueline Cochran convinced him to authorize a program similar to the AAF's male aviation cadets, and her recruits soon surpassed everyone's expectations. In 1943, Arnold ordered both women pilot groups combined into the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) and appointed Cochran director.;By 1943 the increased numbers of women flyers and their continued civilian status interfered with the military mission. General Arnold, under pressure from his commanders, supported militarizing the women, while Cochran, unwilling to cede her leadership role, wanted them organized as a separate AAF women's unit.;As legislators debated the issue of WASP militarization, the need for pilots subsided just as quickly as it had arisen. Arnold reverted to his former position and abandoned the women. Congress, while unwilling to see those women already trained dismissed from the cockpit, refused to militarize them as a separate service. Since the AAF had no expected need for the WASP, Arnold ordered the organization disbanded.;The issue of women as pilots disappeared for the next two decades, resurfacing only in the changed civilian and military climate of the 1970s. In 1976, after long congressional and public debate, the Air Force accepted female aviators. On March 9, 1979, women pilots of World War II officially received their long awaited recognition as veterans and women once again flew in military cockpits. |
