Nancy Love Takes Command of the WAFS By Sarah Byrn Rickman, WASP Author and Historian Part 2 (Continued from last week) Summer 1942, Colonel Tunner hires Nancy Love to recruit women ferry pilots, write their training syllabus and establish requirements to qualify for this new squadron. From left: WAFS Evelyn Sharp, Nancy Love, Barbara Towne,…
HOW THE WAFS OF WWII CAME TO BE On May 21, 1940, Nancy Harkness Love wrote to Lt. Col. Robert Olds — Plans Division of the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps — about the possibility of women ferrying aircraft for the U.S. Army. Two weeks later, Nancy and her husband Robert M….
The Magical Christmas of 1994 On December 20, 1994, the four Rickmans — we were four then — celebrated our older son’s 28th birthday in a village near Berchtesgaden, Germany. The U.S. Air Force sent him to Germany for three years and the other three of us joined him for the holidays. For dinner that night, we journeyed…
Molly Comes to Live With the Rickmans Three years ago, when my granddaughter Emaline turned 7, her heart’s desire was an American Girl doll. Doting gramma that I am, I went with Emy and her mother to the AG store in Denver where Emy picked out “her” doll, Mary Ellen. No, I’m not abandoning my…
The WAFS 0f World War II Our Luncheon Topic! Last Saturday, I finally got to meet Mike McCarthy, the gentleman who very nicely invited me to come to North Carolina in mid-March 2020 to talk about my book The Originals — the women pilots who flew for the U.S.A. in World War II — at the Veterans History Museum…
“Thank You” IWASM and My Mentor Joan Hrubec IWASM, the International Women’s Air & Space Museum, is hosting the launch of my newest book—Teresa James’s biography—October 20 at 7 pm Eastern Time, 5 pm Mountain Time. Join me and many of my friends and fellow advocates of the amazing women pilots who flew for our…
Teresa James WAFS Pilot Gear Up/Gear Down—a P-47 to Newark Book Launch October 20, Presented by IWASM the International Women’s Air & Space Museum When it comes to flying, Teresa James was one of the best. She mastered 26½ tail spins followed by a series of loop-ti-loops in a vintage Travel Air OX-5 to become a…
A 1930s Flyer With a 20th Century Attitude The WASP Museum, Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, is currently honoring original WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) #22, Dorothy Fulton. Check it out!!! Here is my personal tribute to Dorothy. No pilot expects the propeller to drop off an airplane. But that is how nineteen-year-old Dorothy Fulton came to…
Hometown Pilot Betty Gillies’ Impressive Legacy BY KAREN BILLING, STAFF WRITER Rancho Santa Fe News, Rancho Santa Fe, California (Reprinted with permission) NOV. 10, 2020 4:56 AM PT The late Betty Gillies, a trailblazer in women’s aviation, is featured in the new young adult novel “Betty Gillies: WAFS Pilot”, a true story written by Sarah Byrn Rickman drawing on the…
Dateline: Tuesday, July 20, Colorado Springs… Normally a late riser —never before 8 — I set my alarm this morning for 5:45. My friend and first fight instructor, Wally Funk, was lifting off on a Space Flight and I wanted to watch. Wally posing in a space suit. I was on the computer by 6:15…
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