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DEC . 1948

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The Cover This Month

"DO Y OUR HURRYIN G I N REAL CO MFORT ... " a dvi se Sti nson,

mon uf ac tu re rs of the Voy ag er a nd F ly in g Statio n W ago n f ea tu re d

on this mon th 's c ov er . Five th ou sa nd p os t. war o wn er s h ave f ollo we d

the ir c ou ns el, e stab lishing Stin so n as the mos t p op ular 4 -p la ce plane

in the world. Powered by a 165 h.p. f:ranklin engine, the plane cruises

at 130 mph at 5,000 feet wi th a r ange of 554 mil es to sati sfy that"hurrying" urge. A roomy, soundproof cabin with a carrying capacity

of four people and 100 pounds of baggage in the Voyager, or pil ot

and 640 pounds af cargo in t he Flying St ation Wagon, fulf ill s t he

" co mf or t" r eq uisite . Ove r a nd ab ov e f ulfi llme nt o f the se p opu la r

r eq uiremen ts , Stin so n d es ig ne rs wer e inter es te d in p ro du cing a sa fe ,

dependable, economical airplane. To do this, they specified a rugged,

a ll-metal s tr uc tu re with f ab ric s kin; a stur dy , s imple, f ix ed g ear ; a

hi gh w ing; and a s mooth, dependable pow er pl ant . Throughout t he

who le de sign, the y e mp ha sized the h ig hly imp or ta nt f ea tu re o f ec on-

o my in both mainten an ce a nd o pe ro tion . All the se q ua lities , S tins on

b le nd ed s mo othly into the Voya ge r a nd F ly in g S ta tion W ag on . S ma ll

wonder three to five ti mes more St insons have been sold t han any

other 4-place airplane.

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W A S P N E W S L E T T E RVolume V

Publisher ORDER OF FIFINELLA

3629 Lavell Drive

Los Angeles 41, Calif.

Number Three

The WASP NEWSLETTER is published bi-monthly by

the Order of Fifinella, whose members are former Women

Airforce Service Pilots, better known as WASPS. This

Betty Jane Williams

3629 Lavell Dr.

Los Angeles 41, Calif.

Editors

Anne Berry

417 East 9th St.

Apt. 14New York 3, N.Y.

peacetime continuing organization was formed prior to

their deactivation December 20th, 1944 and is legally in-

corporated as a non-profit group under the California

state seal. The WASP NEWSLETTER is devoted pri-

marily to the activities of the WASPS, and keeps them

informed on current aeronautical events.

Executive Committee

President Betty Jane Williams

Vice President Hazel J. Raines

Secretary Treasurer Irene Crum

E ti S t H ll I Sti

Contents

1948 Convention Page 4

Mayor Proclaims WASP Day Page 5

National Memorial Services Page 6

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CONVENTION PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY. SEPT. 15

9:00 ..A.M.-Continuing through the doy, CONVENTION REGISTRA.

TION in the Aviotion Room, mezzanine floor, Hollywood

Roo.evelt Hotel. Miss Allaire Bennett, in charge.

1 :00 P.M.-INITIAL LUNCHEON,Blo om Room.

Gue.t .peaker -Mrs. Blanche Noye., newl y e lected N a-

ti onal Pr e.i dent of t he N inety-Ni ne. and Chief of t he

Airmarking Section of the Civil Aeronautic. Admini.tra-

tion.

Honored gue.ts: Mr. Orville Caldwell, repre.enting Mayor

Bowran, members of the Chamber of Commerce, promin-

ent aviation and civic leaders.

Toa.tmi.tre.s: Betty Jane William., National Pre.ident.

Table decoration. furni.hed by United Air Line .

5:30 P.M.-COCK TAI L PARTY -Aviati on Room, .pon.ored by the

Union Oil Co mp any of Ca lifo rn ia a nd P ac if ic Air motiv eCo rp or atio n. Re gi.tra nts may b ring hu .b an d. or e. co rts

u po n p re .e ntation o f in vita tion. , ob ta in ab le a t th e C on -

vention De.k.

And '0the y c ame f ro m n or th , . ou th , e a. t a nd we. t to c onv en e in the

h ea rt o f . un ny Ca lifo rn ia - tha t f a. t g ro wing metrop oli. o f the we st,

L o. An ge le .. T he Aviatio n Ro om o f th e Holly wo od R oo. ev elt Hotel,

Co nve ntio n Hea dqu ar ter s, . er ve d a . a mo. t a pp ro pr iate . etting f or th e

a ir -mind ed " Fifi . " Th e . ame a ir o f joy a nd d elig ht p re va iled o t the

.ight of .eeing ole' buddies and WASP friend.. It w oo fun-loving

ti me for al l who attended. After old and new acquaintance. w er erenewed and made, the opening luncheon .erved as the kick-off (more

appropriate take-off) for the four day. ahead.

M is s Fa ith Bu chn er , Pr e. ide nt o f th e Ch ic ag o Ch ap te r, a nd the f ir st

to register, is .hown below, receiving her convention credential. from

M is s Allaire Be nn ett, in c ha rg e o f r eg i. tr atio n a nd Tr an' po rtatio n

Chairman for the Convention.

948 C.ON:

OPENING LUNC

W e wer e mo. t f or tu na te ind ee d to h av e the n ewly e lec te d P re .ide ntof t he Ni net y- Nine. and Chi ef of t he C.A.A. A ir Marki ng Seel ionin W a. hing to n, D.C ., f ly into Lo . An ge le . to a tten d the lunc he on an d

be our gue t peaker for t hat occa ion It was delightful t o have

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VENT. ON WOMEN AIRFORCE SERVICEPILOTSH ON OR R OL L

Beverly Moses

Dorothy Nichols

Jeanne L. Norbeck

Margaret Oldenburg

Mabel Rawlinson

Gleanna Roberts

Betty Scott

Dorothy Scott

Margaret J. Seip

Helen J. Severson

Marie Sharon

Evelyn Sharp

Betty P. Stine

Marion Toevs

Gertrude Tompkins

Mary Trebing

Mary Webster

Bonnie Jean Welz

Betty T. Wood

Mary Hartson

Mary H. Howson

Edith Keene

Kathryn B. Lawrence

Hazel Ying Lee

Paula Loop

Alice Lovejoy

Lea Ola McDonald

Peggy Martin

Marie N. Mitchell

Virginia Moffatt

You have worn dreams as

Wings above a hem'tStretched to the wide I

Enchantment of the sky,

Thrilling to beauty uncharted

Corridor.r of air . . . you have found tomorrou

High in the silent places of the blue

Under the shadow of much stronger wings.

You have seen sunlight in the day, and

1 1 1 "oven it with streamers of white cloud

Spilling golden laughter on the earth.God has showered silver in the night and

We who stand below look up to see the

Poetry of wings against the bright

Jane Champlin

Susan Clark

Margie L. Davis

Katherine Dussaq

Marjorie D. Edwards

Elizabeth Erickson

Cornelia Fort

Frances Grimes

PROCLAMATION

TO THE CITIZENS OF LOS ANGELES, GREETINGS:

IHEON SEPT. 15th

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PROGRAM

POSTING OF THE COLORS Color Honor GuardDorothy Avery Mary Ruth Rance

Kay Cleverly Alice Middleton

"THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER..............Francis Scott Key

Ruth Lloyd, Organ

INVOCATION Chaplain Thoburn Speicher

Captain, United States Army

Messages from General Henry H "Hap" Arnold former com-

The United States Army Air Force will always remember with

pride and the highest admiration and esteem the young women

who sat at the controls of some of its most advanced combat

planes during World War II. These women were superior not

only to great physical hardships and the high risks and hazards

every airman and air woman knows: they surmounted with

equal courage the dictates of tradition and the criticism of

reactionary prejudice. Their only fault was that they perhaps

did their job too well. Clearly then we do these thirty-eight

of their member a great injustice if we bring to this service

heavy hearts and grief duJled eyes. These thirty-eight WASPs

h b i Jl t d th f thi

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B U SI NE SS M E E T IN G

The first business meeting was held on September 16th, im-mediately following the Memorial Services, The Redwood Roomof the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel offered a most attractivesetting. National President, Betty Jane Williams, presided.

Listed below are the highlights of the meeting;MEMORIAL FUND. Earlier in. the year it was voted by the

membership at large, that the Memorial Fund be used to pro-vide additional medical care to WASPs, still in need, who re-ceived injuries while serving the Army Air Corps as WomenAirforce Service Pilots. Betty suggested that the presentmonies collected in the Memorial Fund be used to offset thecost of medical examination to further determine a more exactfigure needed for surgery and hospitalization for each girl.Each girl, who is listed in official records as having been in-jured will be contacted and some means decided for the neces-sary arrangements, if an examination is needed. Miss AllaireBennett was appointed Chairman of this committee.FRANCO FLIGHT SCHOLARSHIP. Mr. Carlos Franco, ofYoung & Rubicam Advertising Agen.cy, New York, sent a tele-gram to reassure us. of his donation of. $1,000.00 to start a

flight scholarship as set up by a' committee meeting last Feb-ruary in New York. These points were read and approved.The various state boards of education will be contacted andtheir help sought in an effort to disseminate the informationto all the high schools within a state.FINANCIAL STATUS. The financial status of the organizationwas discussed. In order to meet our budget, it is necessarythat we keep a membership of 750 to 800. Our present mem-bership is 375; therefore we have been unable to meet ourfinancial requirements. Our one and only paid officer (accord-ing to a contract between the organization and that officer)has not been paid a salary for the past six or seven months.The monies have been needed to meet unpaid bills. Though

national dues are payable on December 20th, a large majorityof the members do not pay until many, many months later.It is impossible to set up a budget or run the organizationwith dues paid in the latter half of the year ... when thosemonies are needed early in the year. Maintaining an up-to-dateaddressograph system, such as we have always had, publishingthe type of Newsletter we have published, and in general keep-ing a working organization, when its officers, and membersare scattered all over these United States takes considerablefunds.

It was moved, seconded and passed that the dues be raisedto $8.00 each year, payable on July 1st. Much discussion en-sued this original suggestion. It was the majority of opinion

that the dues pe raised, to compensate for dwindling member-ship, which is to be expected. HOWEVER; this does not be-come effective until such an amendment be passed accordingto the existing by-laws. (Majority of membership ... thosepresent at the convention did not make up that majority).

C i d O i P

Peggy Ann Garner served as

"starter" for the various

raees at Field Day. Shownat right (1. to r.) Hally

Stires, Betty Williams, Peggy

Ann Garner and Joan Whel-

an, in charge of Flying Day

activi ties.

/

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/

Bill Grant, of Minneapolis,

put the little, single-place,

retractable, tricycle landing

gear, 25 hp. Mooney airplane,

through its paces for thewomen pilots. The Mooney

is shown below with a group

of lovely Fifis.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 17

8:45 A.M.-Meet in the lobby. Transportation to Clover Field

for entrants in flyir,g events. All entrants must

be checked out prior to races. See Allaire Bennett,

Transportation Chairman.

12:15 P.M.-TANNER BUS leaves for field. Miss Faith Buch-

ner in charge.

1:00 P.M.-FLYING DAY activities commence at Hughes

Aircraft Company Flight Strip, Jefferson and

Sepulveda Boulevards, Culver City. (Entrance on

Jefferson). Miss Joan Whelan in charge.

Aircraft used through the courtesy of: Boggs-

McBurney Aircraft Inc., 20th Century Flying Serv-

ice, Wade Aircraft, Cloverleaf Aviation, Inc.,

Santa Monica Air Service, Airmen United, andHadelaire Flight Service.

Competitive flying events; Ribbon cutting, Bomb

dropping, and the Pants Race. Champion Fifinella

to be chosen ... all awards to be made at finalbanquet on Air Force Day.

6:00 P.M.-TANNER BUS leaves the field for beach party.

7:00 P.M.-BEACH PARTY at CASTLE ROCK, Santa Mon-

ica (2% miles north of Carl's on Coast Highway).

BUSINESS MEETING Continued

It was agreed that the editor be give na budget with whichto operate, and a Newsletter will have to be published in keep-ing with that budget, even if we must revert to a mimeo-graphed form. In its present form, the Newsletter. costs ap-proximately $200.00 It was also hoped that it would be un-necessary to go back to a mimeograph form, however.MEMBERSHIP. In order to alleviate this problem, it was de-cided to have an all-out drive for membership and Mardo Cranewas appointed Membership Chairman.

BY-LAWS. It was moved by Dodie Aspell that the By-lawsbe changed to allow national convention the authority to of-ficially pass laws, regardless of number present. Under existinglaws, (and because convention attendance very seldom reachesa majority of membership) propositions made at conventionmust first go through the channels of a chapter ... then it is

t t ll th h t f l It d id d th t

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G uest S peak er

BRIG. GENERAL

THOMAS C DARCY

11 :00 A.M. - Swimming

Party and Buffet Luncheon

at Bette G laser's hom e-

6 44 S ou th M ui rf ie ld R oa d,

L os An ge le s. T en ni s c ou rt s

... garden ., a nd swim-

m in g p oo l.

HAZEL RAINES

UNION OIL f C lif & PACIFIC AIRMOTIVE CORP

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UNION OIL of Calif. & PACIFIC AIRMOTIVE CORP.

Sponsor

COCKTAIL PARTY

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WHAT I DISLIKEMOST IN AVIATIONJanet Hargrave, 44-5, Aviation Writer on the NashvlIIe Banner

Election year brings out a rash of polls, and certainly 1948

Is no exception: everyone's itching to speak his piece. As Mr.

Gallup wore himself out trying to find out who. was going to

cop the presidency we thought it probably would be OK by

him if we conducted a little poll of our own.

Gripe is not strictly the main purpose of this survey. We

have always hoped that something like this will serve a double

shift. In other words, if we air our dislikes maybe we can also

do something about them. After all, ex-WASPS should know

a little about flying, even if they never put hand to throttle

after December 1944, and as pilots, or one-time pilots, have a

small part to play in the development of aviation.

The really corking thing about 'the poll is that as crier

for it, I have the first crack at shaking out my complaint,which, strangely enough, is directed against non-aviation

people: the newspaper editors, magazine writers, and for that

matter, all of those who treat the airplane as an infernal

machine, liable to fly apart at any minute.

You all know what I mean: sensational aeronautical stories

that smack very loudly of Buck Rogers; the kind that make

excellent copy but also do a marvelous job of keeping the

general public out of airplanes. For reference I can only draw

upon what I know - local events at the local airports which

have turned up in the papers and on e'leryone's tongue as the

most incredible takes this side of E. A. Poe.One story that enjoyed wide popularity was about a Na-

tional Air Guard pilot who bailed out when his engine started

acting up. He settled to earth near a farm house while his

plime naturally did the same with considerably more disturb-

ance. As the boy hadn't had a great deal of time in the P-47

(it was later thought perhaps a more experienced pilot could

have nursed the ship back to the field) he did the best thing

he knew to do - and that was get out.

To read about it in the papers, he was a visitor from another

planet who came thumping down on the barn roof, scaring

the farmer, his wife, and yes, his daughter almost senseless.

True enough, parachutists don't light in everyone's backyard,

yet it doesn't necessarily follow that hysterics are in order,

if one does.

A d thi i th i t th ll 't h t i t

Stuff like that isn't good. Several students failed to show

up for their appointments. Of course perhaps a portion of the

blame can be put upon flight operators who don't instill safe

flying practices in their customers and students. But operators

can't fly a wing on each and every pilot, and the real blame

lies with any flyer stupid enough to tangle with a power line.

Try to convince the layman of that, though. Too many

people ascribe personalities and motives to an airplane, as if

a plane, sitting quietly by itself, could suddenly start dealing

out death and destruction. They forget that it takes someone

at the controls.

The last little anecdote concerns buzzards. An airline pilot

on an airline pilot's holiday bundled up his wife, two friends

and their small child into a four-place plane and took off on a

weekend trip. An hour or so out he ran into bad weather. \\'hat

happened after that of course is hypothetical, but it was sup-

posed, he attempted to proceed on top, only to find the situation

becoming increasingly poor. At which point he turned back and

sometime later started a let down through the overcast.

The next thing anyone knew is that a farmer heard the

noise of the crash. He was the nearest thing to an on-the-scene-reporter and he said that at the same time he heard the crash

a couple of buzzards were wheeling overhead.

What do you think the newspapers made of that? You're

right! They bleated out that the pilot flew into the tough old

bird, and shattered the propeller, causing excessive vibration

which in turn literally shook the plane into bits. Now more

than just a few readers believed the story. Some pilots fell

for it too, and of course, it is not out of the realm of the cred-

ible. The whole town was talking about the hazards of flying.

"Imagine that," said a fairly intelligent looking fellow.

"Imagine that, and there are so many birds too! It's a wonder

more people don't get killed running into 'em!"

Reconstructing the accident through a careful investigation

the theory was advanced that the pilot allowed the airspeed

t b ild b t ti ll t th d li d t f ili it

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Biting her lip with envy, the young lady and her two camera-ladenescorts stop to adndre the Order of Fifinella exhibits at the New YorkInternational Air Exposition. On display are photos from Sweetwater,our insignia, "Fifi," a class yearbook, copies of the Newsletter, and a

WASPS IN PROGRAM AT

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Five WASPs piloted light planes in one of the fly-by dem-onstrations as part of their contribution to the ceremonies and

activities marking the opening of Idlewild, the New York In-

ternational Airport, early in August.

brief on the ..Order... The three WASPs-the slacks are recognizable-are Gloria Heath, Betty Haas, and Joan Gough.The girls who organized the Order's part of the program were NonieHorton, Gloria Heath, A. J. Mar. and Joan Gough,

MA YOR'S COMMITTEE

INTERNATIONAL AIR EXPOSITION

August 17, 1948

Miss Gloria Heath

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LOS ANGELES

CHAPTER

After our June meeting

which was all business re-garding our convention,we thought we owed our-selves a strictly socialmeeting. So - on Fridaynight, July 23, we had a

_beach party in Long_ Beach, with a roaring

- good fire, hot dogs, bakedbeans, beer, coke and wa-termellon. We settleddown to just having fun.

Of course, most of our talk concerned the "coming event"-

the Third National Convention. More ideas and plans werediscussed with everybody putting her nickel's worth.

The August meeting was held at the Mayfair Hotel on Fri-day the 20th. This was a combined social and business meet-ing. The final plans for the convention were discussed withall LA chapter members present.

CHICAGO CHAPTER: No report.

INDIANA CHAPTER: No report.

TEXAS CHAPTER: No report.

WASHINGTON CHAPTER: No report.

W ASP NEW S

Gene Garvin, 43-5, now Mrs. Charles St. Martin, has a boy

born April 2, named Charles Cameron, Jr. The St. Martins are

living in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Pat Kenworthy, 44-5, was married September 10 to E. Mar-

shall Nuckols, Jr.

WNAA ADOPTS ACTIVE FL IG HT PRO GRAM

(This report did not make the July Newsletter, for whichit was intended, but the news of what took place at that time

and of the WASP's who attended is still of interest).

Several WASPs were delegates to the annual convention ofthe Women's National Aeronautical Association which tookplace June 17-19at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Betty Clark, 43-7, Denever, Colorado, Unit, WNAA andNational Woman Pilot Chairman for the past year, introducedan excellent flight program whereby WNAA will promote activeflying as a part of the organization's work. Flying clubs willbe sponsored by WNAA Units, trophys will be awarded an-nually for outstandiT',g aviation achievements, as will a scholar-ship of $100.00for the furtherance of an aviation career.

Betty worked hard to compile the introduced program andthe foregoing is a very brief extract of its substance. It wasreceived and adopted with enthusiasm by the delegates.

Virginia Etherington Spear, 44-9, President of the Tulsa,Oklahoma, Unit, heartily endorsed the introduction of Betty'splan. Virginia is currently working with the Girl Wing Scoutsof Tulsa as their pilot-instructor, a part of the Tulsa FNAAprogram. Maxine Steward Smith, 43-6, attended the conven-tion as a Tulsa delegate. She is a member of the Tulsa Unit.

If there are Fifinellas interested in joining the WNAA, in-formation may be obtained from Mrs. Leland B. Read, National

President, WNAA, 3722 Melba Place, Normandy, St. LouisCounty, Missouri, or from Connie Caraway, Second Vice-Presi-dent, WNAA, Route 3, Kansas City, Kansas.

Other business was transacted at the convention; severalinteresting and worthy programs adopted; the entertainment,as time permitted, excellent and much fun - but to flyingmembers the adoption of the active flight program was nodoubt the highlight of events.

Maxine Steward Smith, 43-6

We were grieved to learn of Helen's fatal accident. Hermany friends will miss her. Thought you would like to readan article that recently appeared in print re: Helen and herability.

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agencies, Federal and State, in connection with running a flyingschool and an airport.

"Getting up in the skies on a nice summer day makes upfor a lot of things," she says.

Miss McGilvery has been flying for about eight years, andhas about 2,400 hours to her credit. She put in long servicewith the WASP's during the war. Miss McGilvery flew pursuitplanes mostly, and one of the moment's she will always remem-ber came while she was training in a P-39 which, she was soonto find out, had a defectiv.e gas gauge. Flying happily. along,she suddenly ran out of gas.

"It got awfully quiet up there all of a sudden," is the wayshe describes it now.

Fortunately, she was near the airfield and made a safelanding.

Flying has not been the sum and substance of her career.She has sold gloves in a department store, sold insurance, andonce was a partner in an export-import business. But if thereis anything that approaches her love for flying, it probablyis in the literary field. Her not-so-suppressed desire is to be awriter. As a student at the University of Michigan, she ma-

jored in English and literary criticism. She gets it out of hersystem now by writing and editing a monthly four-page news-paper which she sends out to airfields and some flyers through-out Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. It is a breezy publica-tion but with serious editorials about the problems of privateflyers.

She is a member of Zonta, a business and professionalwoman's organization, and occasionally makes luncheonspeeches in Annapolis to spur interest of women in aviation,She is not an ardent feminist, but she does believe that womenare no better, no worse, than men as pilots.

STAR PHOTO PAUL SCHMICK

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FINAL BANQUET OF NATIONAL CONVENTION

Sponsored by Stinson Division. Consolidated.Vultee Corp