Ladies of Lockbourne: Women Airforce Service Pilots and the Mighty B-17 Flying Fortress

The formation of the WASPs in late 1942 represented the culmination of separate efforts by Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran with the support of Henry “Hap” Arnold, Nancy Harkness Love, and various members of the Air Transport Command. The goal of both Cochran and Love was to create a group of women pilots capable of ferrying and testing military planes to free up men for the war effort. Just like the women who found jobs in factories, as epitomized by Rosie the Riveter, the WASPs sought to lend a patriotic hand in a field dominated by men, all the while proving their ability against detractors from the American public to their military bosses...This study will argue that the WASPs not only played an integral role in the World War II home front by assisting the Army Air Forces in multiple ways—thus freeing men for combat purposes, all the while facing opposition from numerous sources while trying to do their part—but were also assigned to B-17 training at Lockbourne Army Airfield in central Ohio, contributing to the war effort by engaging in work that many thought women were unable to handle. [Author]