Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of WWII

Number 4 in the North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series

University of North Texas Press 2008

Nancy Harkness Love is one of the most fascinating women of the twentieth century.  More reserved than the flamboyant Jackie Cochran, she was an extremely accomplished aviatrix and leader of women ferry pilots during WWII.  Sarah Rickman’s thorough, exhaustively researched biography of Nancy Love is the first book to chronicle her life and extensive contributions to US aviation.   Rickman has done a masterful job of mining a very limited paper trail for clues as to her life and personality.  She utilizes Love’s logbooks and extensive personal interviews with Nancy’s three daughters to provide a vibrant, engaging account of Nancy’s life.  Thirty five photos illustrate her life, and a chronology appendix lists notable events and awards.  Those not familiar with WWII aircraft will enjoy the Glossary of Airplane Types in the back of the book.

Nancy was certainly ahead of her time when as a 16 year old daughter of a dentist in Houghton, MI, she earned her private pilot’s license, joining only 300 women who were licensed in the US.  She was the first woman to fly passengers for hire out of East Boston Airport (now Logan International), working for Bob Love, who would become her husband.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army Air corps was in dire need of ferry pilots.  Nancy was asked to recruit women for this important war time role.  Twenty Eight women formed the original cadre of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), which Mrs. Love was named to command in September 1942.  Love’s first group of pilots were hired by the Ferrying Division as civil servants, and attached to the 2^nd Ferrying Group at New Castle Army Air Base in Delaware, conveniently located near Hagerstown, MD where the Fairchild training aircraft were built.

Jackie Cochran would lead a second women’s program, the WFTD, or Women’s Flying Training Detachment, under the Flight Training Command.  The book deftly portrays the parallel programs, and differing visions that the two women nurtured, and how it played out among the top brass.  Love wanted small numbers of proven, experienced women pilots for quick assimilation into the ferry business, whereas Cochran wanted larger numbers of women, trained by the Air Training Command, capable of performing in every noncombat flying duty.  There was certainly dynamic tension.  In August 1943, all of the Army women pilots became WASP, with Cochran the Director of women pilots.   Love became the Executive for WASP in the Ferrying Division.

Rickman’s extensive research produced memos, directives and other published sources, that illustrate the evolution of the military ferrying commands and how the women fitted in, all fully footnoted.  She delves into the various units that Nancy oversaw throughout the country, and her efforts to get the WAFs qualified in Pursuits and transition to more advanced aircraft.  In November, 1944, the last full month of WASP operations, 113 out of 140 women ferry pilots under Nancy Love’s command were pursuit qualified.  Women delivered three fifths of all newly manufactured pursuit aircraft by the fall of 1944.  Congress voted down the WASP bill June 21, 1944, fifteen days after the Normandy invasion, and they were disbanded on Dec. 20, 1944.  The last class, 44-10, graduated Dec. 7, 1944.  Their quest for militarization denied, they were offered a consolation prize:  non-flying reserve commissions in the new US Air Force, “born” September 18, 1947.  149 WASP took commissions, one of which was Lt. Col. Nancy Love.

The last four chapters of the book describe the post war years, raising their family on Martha’s Vineyard after escaping the military.  Bob worked his way up as an airline executive, becoming Chairman of the Board of Allegheny in 1953.  They eventually bought a boat yard, ran a charter boat business and became snowbirds and empty nesters.  Nancy passed away Oct. 22, 1976, after a two year battle with cancer, and is buried on Martha’s Vineyard.