Excerpt from Valiant Women by Lena S. Andrews, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Four days later, and much to the dismay of Love and the ATC, Arnold announced that Cochran would head up the newly established Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), a civilian organization that would find and train women to conduct a wide range of domestic tasks for the Army Air Forces, including but certainly not limited to ferrying planes.

Behind the scenes, Cochran had acknowledged that eliminating the WAFS so soon after its establishment would only serve to further confuse matters. Instead, she agreed to allow Love to remain in charge of the unit, ostensibly under the umbrella of Cochran's WFTD. In the meantime, the press release cleared up any confusion that the announcement of Love's appointment days earlier may have caused. "The formation of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, which was announced September 10," it was clarified, "is part of the program for the utilization of this additional reservoir of trained pilots."

It served as a useful, if tenuous, compromise for both women. Cochran's vision of a broader women's flying command had been embraced, while Love retained her command over an elite corps of highly capable women ferrying pilots. It was certainly not the last compromise that either woman would have to make.

Excerpted from the book VALIANT WOMEN: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II by Lena Andrews. Copyright © 2023 by Lena Andrews. From Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.