These four female pilots leaving their ship at the four engine school at Lockbourne are members of a group of WASPS who have been trained to ferry the B-17 Flying Fortresses. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Lt Col Jacqueline Cochran greets Women Air Service Pilots. (U.S. Air Force photo)
In the collections of the Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives in Archives and Special Collections (ASC), are hundreds of letters written to and from former students turned soldiers of World War II. Dean of Engineering Daniel B. Jett, fondly referred to as “Dad” Jett, would create class newsletters and write to his former students to check in on them and keep them abreast of the happenings at school. You may read more about Dean Jett and these letters in former University archivist Martha Andrews’ award-winning book, The Whole Damned World: New Mexico Aggies at War: 1941-1945, and see more in our exhibit, Aggies at War: from Normandy to Bastogne, August-December 1944.
Among these letters are some from NMSU graduate Kathleen Nova Kelly. Her brothers, Lt. Daniel Kelly ’38 and 1st Lt. Eugene Debs Kelly ‘40, both served overseas. Contributing to the war effort herself, in early 1943, Kathleen joined what became the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
Mrs. Nancy Harkness Love, 28, director of the U.S. Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron, adjusts her helmet in the cockpit of an Army plane before taking off from an eastern United States base. The women under her command will ferry planes from factories to coastal airports, from which they will be flown to overseas battle fronts. National Archives and Records Administration, 535773.
Combining the efforts of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), the WASP was formed on August 5, 1943. WAFS and WFTD both started independently in the fall of 1942 by Nancy Harkness Love and Jacqueline Cochran, respectively. Filling the need to free up male pilots for combat roles, women pilots ferried planes from factories to airfields, flew test flights, towed targets, and trained other pilots. On December 20, 1944, the WASPs were decommissioned. In 1977, the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Air Force recognized WASP’s service in WWII, giving them veteran’s status and benefits.
Kathleen Nova Kelly Titland, Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives
Born in Duran, NM on January 18, 1920, and raised in Tucumcari, Kathleen attended school at New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941 with plans to teach. During her senior year, Kathleen, along with fellow senior Gay LaRue French, enrolled in the school’s aeronautics class–a three-credit course teaching the “fundamentals of flight theory and practice”.[i] Both students declared this as “the best thing that’s come of their education”.[ii] Neither woman intended to take up flying as more than a hobby, but when the opportunity arose, Kathleen traveled to Sweetwater, TX for non-combat flight training to help war efforts in a way she knew she could. After graduating from training at Avenger Field, Kathleen went to Love Field with the Fifth Ferrying Group and then Camp Davis, NC with the Third Tow Target Squadron where she towed targets for anti-aircraft weapons training.
Some of her letters to “Dad” Jett: [iii]
Plosser Prince Air Academy
Avenger Field
Sweetwater, Texas
February 24, 1943Dear Dad Jett,
Aren’t you proud of this redhead of yours? I sure am—and I’m not bragging either.
This is the most fun I’ve had since we quit flying down there at school. Today we met our instructors and had our first preflight lesson. There’s not another thing I can tell about it. It’s under “classified information” but I will say that it’s wonderful.
We have regular drill as in the Army. We’re very green at the whole thing and I’m afraid the lieutenants in charge of our drill aren’t any too thrilled about trying to get us all in step. But we try so very hard.
Ground school isn’t difficult at all so far and hope it remains this simple.
Thought I’d just let you know that the breaks have started my way again and we’ll “show our Uncle Sam what we can do, sir” to repay for all these wonderful opportunities that have been given us.
One strict regulation we have is no publicity in any form. But, if you’re still making up that class letter, I’d sure love to hear about all the rest of the fellows.Kathleen
Liberty Field
Camp Stewart, GA
October 15, 1944Dear Dad Jett,
Here’s one of your redheads reporting in to you after a long period of silence. No doubt, you have read, or heard, that the WASPs will be deactivated on December 20. That let’s most of us be home by Christmas which we all think will be pretty wonderful. Of course, it will be pretty hard to have to give up flying all the shops that we have been flying. But, when we reach the point where we are replacing rather than releasing the new pilots – well, it’s time to go home. It has been a great experience and we have just about been in “Seventh Heaven” flying as we have been able to[…]Well, I’ll be back to flying Cubs before much longer – but it will be pretty wonderful getting back to New Mexico again – it’s a great place, isn’t it.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
Kathleen went on to receive a master’s degree in education and taught for twenty-five years in Montana. She married in 1947 and had four children. She passed away in 2007, receiving full military honors at her memorial service.
In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, ASC would like to honor the service of Kathleen Nova Kelly Titland and other WASPs. You may learn more about some of the other women featured in our collections in our Women’s History exhibit.
Additional resources:
Digitized Personal Narratives of WASP veterans
Women Airforce Service Pilots Digital Archive at Texas Woman’s University
Includes classbooks, photographs, and oral histories
______________________________________________________
[i] New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Fifty-first annual catalog issue 1940-1941 (Las Cruces, NM: New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 1941), 125. PDF
[ii] Kennedy, Betty, “Kelly and French form select group of College’s aviatrix”, The Round Up (Las Cruces, NM), December 12, 1940.
[iii] Correspondence from Kathleen Kelly to Daniel B. Jett, 24 February 1943 and 15 October 1944, UA074, College of Engineering: Records of the Deans. Daniel B. “Dad” Jett (1938-1957), Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives, New Mexico State University Library Archives and Special Collections, Las Cruces, New Mexico.