Remembering Vi Cowden: Pioneer WWII Female Pilot

October 1, 1916 – April 10, 2011

By Barb Garwood, American Airlines pilot and one of WMA Founders

Twenty nine years ago on Sept. 2, 1982, my recruit Karen Daneu and I, both Air Force T-38 instructor pilots, flew T-38A tail number 1952 (my birth year and favorite T-38) on a boondoggle four day cross country from bases in Phoenix to Oklahoma to Kokomo, Indiana and landing in Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, OH to attend the Cleveland National Air Show at Burke Lakefront Airport over the Labor Day weekend. How could our Ops officer say no? We were to attend a Women AirForce Service Pilots (WASP) convention, which was happening the same time as the air show and were going to be introduced to the 400 former WWII women pilots gathered there (and of course see the air show, Blue Angels flying A-4F Skyhawks and much more)!  Karen and I were forming a new organization of active duty Air Force women military pilots, and were anxious to offer membership to the first pioneer American women military pilots. (Our new organization evolved to become the Women Military Aviators.)

Across the country Karen and I had the usual comments from controllers (“Are you the pilots? You mean there are two of you and you’re flying the jet?”) and the usual gawks from the men marshaling our aircraft to parking areas when we shut down and upon removing our helmets and skull caps, our hair fell out in sweaty locks.  Yes, Karen and I thought we were pretty hot stuff back then, jet pilots and all.  After all, there were only 50 of us women AF pilots when the Air Force started pilot training for us in the 70’s.  There were so few female T-38 instructor pilots; you could count them on two hands. And no one had ever seen or heard a woman military pilot on the radio or seen one in a flight suit and in a military aircraft.

Or had they?  Had the country seen women flying military aircraft before?  Indeed, they had.

Violet (Vi) Cowden, born Violet Clara Thurn, Oct. 1, 1916 in a sod house on a farm in Bowdle, South Dakota was one of four children.  Her father was born in Odesa, Russia and her mother was born in Java, S.D.  In “Wings of Silver: The Vi Cowden Story”, documentary film by Christine and Mark Bonn, Vi was dreaming of the sky at a young age.  She said, “I can remember, I was about 6 or 7 years old, and a hawk would fly over [the farm].  I used to watch him just floating around up there.  And I thought if I could just do that, if I could be like this hawk.”

About her youth, Vi said, “Growing up on a farm, I think that the women were just as important as the men and when I was in high school, I don’t think that I ever had the feeling that I was different from the guys, because I loved to play basketball and do all the things they did and I almost always felt equal.”  She attended Black Hills University and became a first grade teacher.  One day she just decided to learn how to fly.  She asked the pilot and owner, Clyde, at the Black Hills Airport, if he would teach her to fly and he said, “Come on, I think you’ll make a damn good pilot.”

Vi continued taking flying lessons, spending $10 to $12 dollars a month on flying out of her $110 monthly teacher’s salary. She earned her pilot’s license before her driver’s license, which was why she had to ride her bike 6 miles to the airport for lessons. “The bug hit me and I could not think of anything else,” she said.  Despite her small 5 foot, 90 pound stature, Vi never let society or male resistance stop her from doing what she wanted to do.

When the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the US into WWII, Vi applied for the Women AirForce Service Pilots (WASP) program. In 1941, almost all the male pilots fit to fight the air war were overseas and there simply were not enough qualified male pilots at home to ferry new planes to bases, test aircraft leaving the factories, tow targets, conduct avionics testing missions, pick up and deliver parts and do many other noncombat flying missions. Formed from two separate organizations, the Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Service (WAFs) led by Nancy Love, and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) led by Jackie Cochran, the WASP were licensed pilots recruited in the US.  From 25,000 applicants, 1,830 women were accepted and 1,074 completed the 6 month intensive training course at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas and served the country as pilots.

At 26 years old, Vi graduated in WASP class 43-W-4, the third class to graduate. She was selected as one of only 114 WASP during her service to fly pursuit (fighter) aircraft, including the P-39, P-40, P-47, and P-51.  In “Wings of Silver” Vi recalls memories of flying the heavy and cumbersome P-47.  At graduation a fellow male pilot in training revealed to her that he had called in sick prior to P-47 training because he was afraid of the aircraft.  It was only after he saw the top of Vi’s curly head as she taxied by that he conquered his fear. Vi related, “You’re doing your job, and you never know when you’re an inspiration to someone else.  I certainly didn’t know I would ever be an inspiration to anyone flying this [P-47] airplane.”  One of her greatest memories of that time was the very first flight of an untested P-51 Mustang in which she was the first pilot to fly the aircraft.  Her feelings about flying were how “free and wonderful it is.”

The WASP program was disbanded on December 20, 1944 when male pilots started returning from war.  Vi went home, at her own cost, and was very disappointed as were all the WASP.  It would take until 1977 for the WASP to get their veteran status.  There were very few jobs for women pilots in 1944.  Vi worked as a ticket agent for TWA in New York for a while, hated that and then eventually owned a ceramic business in Lynwood, CA where she met her husband.  She had a daughter.  She was active in her community and was a former president of the WASP organization.  Not to be grounded, Vi exemplified a flying spirit by skydiving at age 76 and again at age 89 with the Army’s Golden Knights.  She commemorated flying the P-51 Mustang during her WASP duty by co-piloting the “Betty Jane” P-51 in 2010 from San Bernardino to Orange County.

Last March, Vi was featured in the educational documentary “Second to None” written and directed by Randy Rice, National Manager Education Programs, Farmers Insurance, in the episode on aviation history. I was honored to be in the film as a historical narrator of the WASP story.  Why me?  Because, like all women military pilots who have followed in the pioneer path of the WASP, we have a unique bond and common struggle to take our place in the sky.

I met Vi again at the premiere of the film on March 16 in Los Angeles after our first meeting 29 years ago in Cleveland.  My daughter and I escorted her from the reception to the theater when it was time to show the film.  In her WASP uniform, at 94 years old, she was still a petite 5 foot woman who barely met the weight requirement for duty back in 1943.  As we moved through the crowd, one large man said to her, “You’re adorable!”  She said after he passed to me, “Adorable? What’s that supposed to mean?”

That was Vi.

Vi passed away on April 10, 2011 and many family members and people she touched, like me, will miss her.  A celebration of her life will take place May 21, 2011 at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, CA.

Special thanks to Chris Bonn on Vi’s quotes and stories in this article.
For ordering documentaries, see www.wingsofsilvermovie.com and www.farmered.com for “Second to None.”

Link for Vi’s memorial: http://intimesofwar.us/MEMORIAL.HTML.