Constance B. Turner
March 16, 1918 – November 25, 1979
Class: W-43-7, Trainee
Training Location: Avenger Field (Sweetwater, Tex.)

“Constance B. Turner served as a trainee pilot in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II, class 43-W-7t. Constance trained for the WASP at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX. Class 43-W-7 consisted of 101 women who entered training on May 23, 1943, of which only 59 graduated on November 13, 1943”.

Connie Turner was my role model in so many ways: principled, athletic, and erudite. One of my everlasting memories was when we were at Woolworth’s in Keene NH and a clerk was rude to her. She immediately asked to speak to the manager, not brooking any behavior less than polite, or at least acceptable, by the staff. I doubt the clerk was rude to anyone else that day.

On the Marine Corp birthday last fall, I posted photos on Instagram of the Marines in my family: grandfather, father and son. During that research, I found the WASP record with photos of Mom during WWII when her husband was stationed in the Pacific. Not one to be satisfied with her cushy life in Boston and Vermont, she enrolled in the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) and travelled to Sweetwater, Texas to train.

Jackie Cochran, a pioneering female pilot and record-holder, was the instrumental force behind the creation of the WASP. To aid in the WWII effort, she supervised the training of hundreds of women pilots at the former Avenger Field in Sweetwater, from August 1943 to December 1944.

“Licensed female civilian pilots were recruited and trained to fly military aircraft, ferrying them from factory to shipping point and on occasion flying damaged planes back for repair. This enabled more male pilots to be sent into combat.”

Classes entered the WASP program at Avenger Field in monthly intervals. A total of 18 classes completed training: 8 in 1943 and 10 in 1944. Of the 25,000 women who applied for flight training, 1,830 were accepted, and of those, 1,074 received their wings.

Training for women pilots paralleled but did not duplicate that given the men. Because the women were expected to go into ferrying, emphasis was placed on cross-country flying. Gunnery and formation flight training were omitted.

The first course was four months long. Although the hours were flexible and varied according to previous training, 115 flying hours were generally called for in addition to 180 hours of ground instruction. As the experience level of the trainees declined, the course was expanded and revised. By the end of 1943, the length had been extended to 27 weeks and the flying hours to 210. Few curricular changes were made in 1944; the main one increased training from 27 to 30 weeks.

The WASP were employed under the Civil Service program. It was always assumed they would become part of the Army when a proper place within the military organization could be found for them. In fact, bills were introduced in Congress to give them military rank, but even with General Arnold’s support, all efforts failed to absorb the WASP into the military.

Avenger Field remained a WASP training base until being disbanded in December 1944. 1,074 women pilots were trained at the facility including 37 that gave their lives in the service of their country. On December 20 the Army Air Forces disbanded the WASP program and the WASP returned to civilian life with no veterans’ benefits. In 1977 Congress finally granted benefits to the 850 remaining WASP.

The WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) was cancelled primarily due to the increasing availability of male pilots returning from combat towards the end of World War II, making the program seemingly unnecessary, combined with political pressure and opposition to the idea of women in military aviation roles at the time; despite their valuable contributions, the program was disbanded in December 1944. 

CBT training in Sweetwater TX

In May 23, 1943 in Sweetwater TX, Connie began her flight training with 101 other female students.

The photographs tell the story of her during the summer of 1943. She looks happy and relaxed, as most 25-year-olds are. While I don’t have details of her training and life at Sweetwater, the photos below help tell the story. Without a doubt she was also thinking about her husband in the Pacific in the thick of WWII.

On the night of October 13, 1943, towards the end of her training Connie was flying with her civilian flight instructor, O.L. Birchfield. She had made two successful landings.

“On the third landing the student leveled off high. The instructor applied power to recover. This startled the student who jerked back on the stick causing the ship to stall in dragging the right wing.”

The “Description of Accident:, probably written by a senior officer, states that the accident is “attributed to 50% judgement and techniques on the part of the student and 50% judgement and technique on the part of the instructor.”

“W/P Turner seeming to be slightly tense but an average student….I then added additional throttle which seemed to startle the student who jerked back on the stick stalling the airplane, I immediately added more throttle and made correction the ship have dropped on the right wing, making a bounce landing. I thought it better to continue around the field. After circling the field and landing I brought the ship into line to have it checked.

Aircraft accident records indicate that this aircraft was present for duty and suffered a minor mishap on Oct. 13, 1943, with civilian pilot Mr. O.L. Birchfield, a flight instructor, and Constance B. Turner, a WASP Class 43-W-7 Woman Pilot student on board. Luckily, damage to the aircraft was slight.North American Aviation later remanufactured the aircraft to T-6G standards at the NAA plant in Downey, California, and assigned it construction number 168-47. Technicians completed the project on May 22, 1950. In the early 1960s the USAF surplused the aircraft, and it entered the civilian registry circa 1963 as N6253C. The aircraft is based at Dallas Executive Airport and makes its home in the Agather Hangar at the Henry B. Tippy National Aviation Education Center.

Is it just me, or was the deck stacked against Connie because she was a woman? If the accident was 50% attributed to the teacher and 50% to the trainee why was she not given a second chance? Who knows. In the end, Connie did not graduate along with 42 other trainees in her class of 101 students.7 The next year, the WASP program was disbanded in December.

After the final report, Connie left Sweetwater and traveled to Ft. Worth. It is presumed that she continued her training, albeit on a private basis. In February 1944, she wrote the following letter to one Charles O. Prince, requesting work as an instructor. She states that she has “passed the written examinations for my commercial and instructor’s and expect to hold the full ratings in two weeks.”

Charles Prince had begun a commercial flight training business in 1942 with Joe Plosser called Plosser-Prince Air Academy. But the company, especially Prince, was hobbled with a history of failures: contract cancellations, fraud charges, and lease improprieties.

Having failed in the US, Plosser-Prince took their proposed airplane pilot training to Mexico and South American. Here is where Connie appeared again.

A total of 18 classes completed WASP training: 8 in 1943 and 10 in 1944. 25,000 women who applied for flight training, 1,830 were accepted, and of those, 1,074 received their wings. CBT was one of 1,830 WASP chosen out of 25,000, which equals 7.32% of all applicants. You go, Mom!

Following that letter, there is no more information of Connie so I suspect that she either spent the rest of the war in Ft. Worth or returned to Bellows Falls.

What sticks in my mind is her ingenuity and grit: at some point, she heard about the WASP program, got herself to Sweetwater, TX, learned how to fly, and overcame an embarrassing dismissal. And then tried again to participate in the war effort with the Prince-Plosser outfit. I guess this is partially what I saw when she challenged the Woolworth’s salesman. Connie was not easily turned away.

Acknowledgements from CeCe Haydock, daughter of Constance Turner

I would like to thank Barbara Elaine Webb CAF (Commemorative Air Force) DFW Wing and Ellie Dana, Squadron Leader of the CAF WASP Squadron, who was the catalyst for the research of my mother’s WASP training. She first wrote me asking me for a photo of Connie to add to the WASP trade card collection. I look forward to seeing the card! Also, thank you to LaVone Kay of the CAF RISE ABOVE for her work commemorating the WASP.

The Texas Woman’s University Women Airforce Service Pilot Official Archive is a goldmine for WASP history, including photos. All the photos included are from the website.

And finally, the Air Force Historical Support Division provided much contextual information.

We are lucky to have both these public and private organizations who keep alive the history of WWII women pilots.

Sources:

CeCe Haydock, daughter of Constance Turner
Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas, WASP Collection