Tuesday Tidbits: WASP: Women Airforce Service Pilots

WASP Betty Wall

In 1942, two independent female flying organizations were created, the WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment) by pilot Jacqueline Cochran and the WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron) by pilot Nancy Harkness Love. These two organizations combined August 5, 1943 to form the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) led by Jackie Cochran.

Jacqueline Cochran

More than 25,000 women applied to the WASP. Only 1,830 were accepted into the program, with 1,074 of these skilled female pilots completing the training with 560 hours of ground school and 210 hours of flight training. Many of these women came from wealthy backgrounds as they could afford the expensive instructions to earn their pilot’s license well before applying.

WASPs

These patriotic brave ladies became the first women to fly American military aircraft, taking off from 126 airbases across the U.S. to relocate combat aircraft. They flew 80% of the ferrying missions and piloted just about every type of U.S. military aircraft used by the military during WWII. WASPs delivered over 12,000 aircraft and freed around 900 male pilots for combat duty. They flew over sixty million miles.

WASP trainees with instructor

Though WASPs were stationed stateside away from the combat, thirty-eight died due to accidents in the line of duty, and one disappeared while on a ferrying mission. Her fate is still unknown.

Besides ferrying airplanes from factories to bases where the male pilots were stationed for training and to be deployed, WASPs also tested aircraft, trained male pilots, were airplane mechanics, transported cargo, and towed targets for live anti-aircraft artillery practice.

Deanie Parish by a P-47

Jackie Cochran insisted upon her female pilots having their own uniform. General Hap Arnold said, “They should be BLUE.” The Quartermaster Corps offered 40,000 yards of drab olive wool fabric. To which Cochran responded, “My girls will never wear that!” Instead of outright rejecting the material and risk not having WASP specific uniforms, Cochran along with the designer made up two uniform samples; one in the lackluster olive and the other in a ‘classy’ Santiago blue wool gabardine, which closely resembles the current Air Force Blue color. The green one worn by a Quartermaster Corps clerk and the blue one by a gorgeous French model were paraded in from of the two decision making generals. Surprisingly, they chose the blue one. LOL! Cochran was a smart cookie and knew how to get her way even if men made the decision.

WASP uniforms

Though the WASP worked for the Army, they were still civilians. They were paid less than the men who did the same job and didn't receive any benefits. They had to pay for their own travel and uniforms.

Fifinella was the WASP mascot. The logo was created by the Walt Disney Company.

 The WASP arrangement with the Army was terminated December 20, 1944 when returning male pilots took over the ferrying duties. Finally in 1977, the WASP members were granted veteran status.

Though an individual WASP wouldn’t perform all these duties but specialize in one, I chose to have my WASP heroine in my WWII novel Mrs. Witherspoon Goes to War do many of the jobs so I could spotlight several of the WASP assignments.

WASP Betty Wall in her golden years

MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR (Heroines of WWII series)

A WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) flies a secret mission to rescue three soldiers held captive in Cuba.

Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two daughters, an excellent pilot, and very patriotic. She joins the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). As she performs various tasks like ferry aircraft, transporting cargo, and being an airplane mechanic, she meets and develops feelings for her supervisor Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg. When Peggy learns of U.S. soldiers being held captive in Cuba, she, Major Berg, and two fellow WASPs devise an unsanctioned mission to rescue them. With Cuba being an ally in the war, they must be careful not to ignite an international incident.

 NOW AVAILABLE!!!

THE LADY’S MISSION (Quilting Circle 5)

Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love? Cordelia Armstrong wants nothing more than to escape the social norms for her station in society. Unless she can skillfully maneuver her father into giving up control of her trust fund, she might have to concede defeat—as well as her freedom—and marry. Every time Lamar Kesner finds a fascinating lady, her heart belongs to another. When a vapid socialite is offered up as a prospective bride, he contemplates flying off in his hot air balloon instead. Is Lamar the one to finally break the determination of Cordelia’s parents to marry her off? Or will this charming bachelor fly away with her heart?

Available for order on Amazon.

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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Tuesday Tidbits: FB PARTY!!!

Join me at a BOOK RELEASE PARTY!!!

Tuesday, October 18,2022, 6:30 EST

Come Meet the Authors! Mary Davis, Bradley Caffee, Sara Davison, Alyssa Roat, and Hope Bolinger.

5 Amazon Gift Cards to be Given Away!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/541277049330653/

THE LADY’S MISSION (Quilting Circle 5)

Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love? Cordelia Armstrong wants nothing more than to escape the social norms for her station in society. Unless she can skillfully maneuver her father into giving up control of her trust fund, she might have to concede defeat—as well as her freedom—and marry. Every time Lamar Kesner finds a fascinating lady, her heart belongs to another. When a vapid socialite is offered up as a prospective bride, he contemplates flying off in his hot air balloon instead. Is Lamar the one to finally break the determination of Cordelia’s parents to marry her off? Or will this charming bachelor fly away with her heart?

 

Available for order on Amazon..

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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Tuesday Tidbits: HAPPY WEDDING DAY!!!

A wedding is one of the happiest days of a person’s life. At least for most people, but arranged marriages are something that has been going on since the beginning of time. The thought of arranged marriages doesn’t sit well with me. Some of these are purely to benefit the parents. While others are the parents genuinely trying to look out for their children’s future. I found the first recorded arranged marriage.

“Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:22

Yep, Adam and Eve was the first arranged marriage. If anyone would know the absolute best people to arrange a marriage between, it is God Almighty. Others in the Bible had arranged marriages as well.

Royalty has a long history of arranging marriages. You couldn’t let just anyone into the royal family. Sometimes these arrangements are for political alliances and empire building. Some of them were arranged from birth. Mary Queen of Scots was five when the arrangement was made for her to marry France’s King Henry II’s son.

Another group of arranged marriages were the “Dollar Princesses.” These were generally new-money American heiresses post Civil War and into the early 1900s. The British nobility were struggling financially. To boost the new-money families in American society, they made arrangements with titled men (or their families) to be married. There were even magazines listing the available heiresses and titled men to help make matches.

Some well-known Dollar Princesses are Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill who became a British Prime Minister, Frances Ellen Work who was the great-grandmother Princess Diana, and Consuelo Vanderbilt who spent the morning of her wedding alone and in tears. My heart goes out to these women and others who are forced to marry.

Some cultures still ascribe to arranging marriages for their children. I am grateful and blessed to not be in one of them. As a romantic and a romance writer, I prefer the falling in love angle. I have been married for over 38 years! And counting!

Though my hero and heroine, Lamar and Cordelia in book 5 of The Quilting Circle series, aren’t being forced into an arranged marriage in the truest sense of the practice, they are being strongly encouraged. Unlike in book 2, where Isabelle was being forced.

But worry not, they both have happy endings for couples.

THE LADY’S MISSION (Quilting Circle 5)

Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love? Cordelia Armstrong wants nothing more than to escape the social norms for her station in society. Unless she can skillfully maneuver her father into giving up control of her trust fund, she might have to concede defeat—as well as her freedom—and marry. Every time Lamar Kesner finds a fascinating lady, her heart belongs to another. When a vapid socialite is offered up as a prospective bride, he contemplates flying off in his hot air balloon instead. Is Lamar the one to finally break the determination of Cordelia’s parents to marry her off? Or will this charming bachelor fly away with her heart?

 

Available for order on Amazon. (Releases October 5, 2022)

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; The Widow’s Plight, The Daughter's Predicament, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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FREE E-BOOK!!!! For a Limited Time

Seriously! Nothing to sign up for.

In celebration of The Lady's Mission releasing, the Kindle version of The Daughter's Predicament is FREE until 10/9/22! Get your copy today!

THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT (Book2) *2020 Selah Awards Finalist & WRMA Finalist* – As Isabelle’s romance prospects are turning in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams.

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Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love?

Cordelia Armstrong wants nothing more than to escape the social norms for her station in society. Unless she can skillfully maneuver her father into giving up control of her trust fund, she might have to concede defeat—as well as her freedom—and marry. Every time Lamar Kesner finds a fascinating lady, her heart belongs to another. When a vapid socialite is offered up as a prospective bride, he contemplates flying off in his hot air balloon instead. Is Lamar the one to finally break the determination of Cordelia’s parents to marry her off? Or will this charming bachelor fly away with her heart?

Order Here: https://www.amazon.com/Ladys-Mission-Quilting-Circle-Book-ebook/dp/B0B8DZMZJG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1B72CJD061SUW&keywords=the+lady%27s+mission+by+mary+davis&qid=1662765191&s=books&sprefix=the+lady%27s+mission%2Cstripbooks%2C133&sr=1-1

 

💖 Other Books in the Quilting Circle Historical Romance Series 💖

THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT (Book1) – Will a secret clouding a single mother’s past cost Lily the man she loves?

THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Book3) *2021 Selah Awards Winner & WRMA Finalist *– Nicole heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband. Can she learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?

THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET (Book4) –Complications arise when a fancy French lady, Geneviève, steps off the train and into Deputy Montana’s arms.

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MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; The Widow’s Plight, The Daughter's Predicament, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

 Books2Read  Newsletter  Blog   FB  FB Readers Group   Amazon   GoodReads   BookBub

Tuesday Tidbits: RANDOM RESEARCH

Being an author, I research a lot of things I never imagined learning about. From hot-air balloons to hurricanes, from challenge coins to stagecoaches tipping over, and a lot of fascinating stuff in between. (I’ll list a couple of those at the end.)

Here are a few of the things I hunted down while writing The Lady’s Mission.

~Since I was featuring a hot-air balloon in this story, I researched a ton of stuff about them and how to fly one. I watched dozens of videos on this and, by the end, felt as though I might be able to fly a hot-air balloon. Maybe not perfectly, but hopefully enough not to crash. Not that I think I’ll be flying one solo any time soon. 

~The Quilting Circle series obviously features quilts, and even though I have been quilting and sewing for years and years, I still did some historical research. I ran across some interesting newspaper clippings in a book about historical quilts. That is where I saw an article about bachelors sewing a quilt to raise money for charity. I knew that was a valuable gem, and I had to come up with a story to use it in. Well, The Lady’s Mission was the perfect story. 

~Next, I wanted a group of outcasts and chose immigrants, so I needed to know which ones might have been in Washington State. I wanted to have an eclectic mix of people in my little immigrant encampment.

~Now that I had my immigrants, I needed to know how to have my hero greet them, so learning to say “hi” in Kittatas (a Native American tribe associated with the Yakima Nation) and Chinese were important. I didn’t want to get into a lot of foreign language dialogue, just “hi”.

~With my hero being a hot-air balloon enthusiast, it made sense for him to receive a magazine that would include the subject, so I learned what the scientific journal of the day might be called.

Like stumbling across the bachelor quilt, here are a couple of other awesome finds I wasn’t looking.

~A dog who went to jail for killing the mayor’s wife’s cat. Yes, actual prison. He learned his prison number, and eagerly waited for his to be called so he could jump on the work-detail bus. If I remember right, this was in the 1920s. I have plans to mention him in a story, but that one hasn’t been contracted as of yet.

~The Oscars’ statue was named after a secretary’s uncle. She removed the yet-unnamed statue out of the box and said, “This looks like my Uncle Oscar.” Whether this is actually true or not, I don’t know, but it makes for a cute story.

The Lady’s Mission releases tomorrow. Read about Cordelia and Lamar trying to get out of an arranged courtship while hot-air ballooning and constructing a bachelor quilt.

In celebration of The Lady’s Mission releasing tomorrow, book 2 in the Quilting Circle series, The Daughter’s Predicament (Kindle version) is scheduled to be free for a few days. I believe starting on the 5th. Happy Reading!

RELEASES TOMORROW!

THE LADY’S MISSION (Quilting Circle 5)

Will Cordelia abandon her calling for love? Cordelia Armstrong wants nothing more than to escape the social norms for her station in society. Unless she can skillfully maneuver her father into giving up control of her trust fund, she might have to concede defeat—as well as her freedom—and marry. Every time Lamar Kesner finds a fascinating lady, her heart belongs to another. When a vapid socialite is offered up as a prospective bride, he contemplates flying off in his hot air balloon instead. Is Lamar the one to finally break the determination of Cordelia’s parents to marry her off? Or will this charming bachelor fly away with her heart?

 

Available for pre-order on Amazon. (Releases October 5, 2022)

 

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Quilting Circle 3) is a Selah Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; The Widow’s Plight, The Daughter's Predicament, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , Prodigal Daughters Amish series, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

 Books2Read  Newsletter  Blog   FB  FB Readers Group   Amazon   GoodReads   BookBub