Army & Navy: Women in War

Jacqueline Cochran jumped into the war effort early. Last year she was the first woman to pilot a bomber to England. Last month she was in England again with more than a score of Cochran-trained women ferry pilots. Last week at Fort Worth, Texas, she threw her fierce energy into training a pool of women flyers for any noncombatant job in which the Army Air Forces can use them to replace men.

Blonde, brown-eyed Jackie Cochran got into almost everything early. At four she was orphaned, at 14 she was an experienced beauty-parlor operator, at 24 she was about to enter the London-Melbourne race as the only U.S. woman flyer (she only made Bucharest). Today she is not quite 34, and the acknowledged No. 1 feminine flyer of the U.S., the successful manager of a cosmetic business and a model orphanage, the mistress of four country and city homes, the wife of Big Businessman Floyd Odium.

As No. 1 trainer for the woman flyers pool, Jackie Cochran works under Colonel Luke Smith, chief of Army Air Forces individual training, has no connection with the WAFS except to supply pilots. The first Cochran class opens in a fortnight, probably in Texas.