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ISSUE
38 - October 2008
Over 7,000 Total Ads Listed
1,000 NEW Ads Per Week
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| A GATHERING OF LEGENDS
- VI COWDEN |
| Vi Cowden spent her childhood and
adolescence on a South Dakota farm where she would watch
hawks fly high, and moments later, zoom down to capture
a chicken. As she says, “that’s when, as a
seven year old child, my dream to fly like a hawk began.” |
 October
1st, 1916, Vi Cowden was born in a South Dakota sod house.
She attended Black Hills University, and taught primary
grades there. During these years, Vi would join her friend,
and friend’s boyfriend to watch him shoot landings
at the airport. Passively observing this young man fly
simply wasn’t enough for Cowden. She couldn’t
just watch anymore. She approached the owner, and said
clearly, “I want to learn to fly.”
Having no
car, Vi rode her bike six miles to the airport before school,
taught all day, and returned for ground school at night.
She received her private pilot’s
license before the December 7th Pearl Harbor Bombings,
and resolved to serve her country. She joined the Navy.
She said she liked the hats, but when she received a
telegram from Jacqueline Cochran to join the class of
43-4 for pilot training, her fashion interests fell.
She was going to fly. |
The WASPs experienced the exact training
as the male cadets. She admits the male instructors showed
surprised when a class of all girl pilots walked in. They
flew in the morning and took ground school in the afternoon.
Jacqueline Cochran pinned her wings, and after this, Cowden
headed to Love Field, Dallas Texas in the Air Transport Command.
She picked up planes at the factories and transported them
to training fields or points of debarkation, such as Long
Beach, California or Newark, New Jersey.
Vi Cowden was then
chosen to attend Pursuit School in Brownsville, Texas. She
had ten hours in the back of an AT-6 with an instructor that
had never flown with a woman. He dominated the controls.
When he was about to wash her out, telling her she had given
him the lousiest landing he had ever experienced, she retorted, “That was
not my landing. It was yours.” He let her fly after
that. |
 Cowden’s first P-51 experience was nearly lost.
She had orders to pick up a P-51 at North American, where
every plane was to have been tested and flown an hour.
Her plane had not. The mechanic simply wrote down that
it had, and it made her nervous, but, she followed orders,
and claims apprehension lurked until she pulled back on
the stick and that P-51 charged into the sky. How thrilling
to be the plane’s first pilot! How lucky to conquer
the nerves and gain this amazing experience.
Vi also had orders to fly a P-51 to Montgomery, Alabama
and upon landing, found the press was there to take pictures
of her and the plane. This was all because she was the
first woman to fly a P-51 to the Tuskegee Airman.
December 20th, 1944 remains one of the saddest in Vi’s
history. This is when the WASP program ended, and she knew
she would never again fly a P-51. She comments, “This
plane was like having your own wings… It was an
honor for me to fly the P-51 and be one of the Legends.”
After the service, Vi worked at the TWA ticket counter, and was in the ceramic
business for ten years. She’s been married for fifty years, has one daughter,
and three grandchildren. She has had a wonderful life, and claims, “flying
the P-51 is the best thing that ever happened to this farm girl that had a
dream of flying like the hawks.” |
The Gathering
of Mustangs & Legends
Commemorative DVD – Coming Soon! The Mustangs. The
Legends. The History. Preview the forthcoming Gathering
of Mustangs & Legends DVD, which will feature over
60 minutes of footage from the historic four-day air show
held in Columbus, Ohio, September 27-30, 2007. Legend and
pilot interviews, aerial footage, heritage flights and
behind-the-scenes footage are just a few examples of the
exciting and historic footage captured in high definition
for all to enjoy!
Click on the image below to visit the GML website and watch
the DVD preview:
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