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Following the defeat of the House Resolution  on June , , the Army Air Forces was faced three choices regarding future actions for obtaining WASP militarization. First, it could push for passage of Senate Bill , a WASP militarization bill that had been submitted to the Senate Military Affairs Committee and was awaiting debate. If the War Department encouraged its submission, and if it passed the Senate, then the issue could be resubmitted before the House, because the House had technically not voted against the bill but had, in a legislative maneuver, simply removed its enactment clause. Second, the AAF could stop WASP training, in accordance with the recommendations of the Ramspeck committee, maintain the WASPs on active duty, and seek medical and insurance benefits for them. The third choice was to disband the entire program. While the WASP bill was being debated before the House, Commanding General Henry H. Arnold was in Europe directing the air operations for the D-Day attack, still recovering from a heart attack he had suffered immediately before the European mission. The D-Day operations had been very successful . Allied troops had landed in Normandy with fewer losses to the Air Forces than had been anticipated. The Allies were now moving toward Germany, and the American media was predicting a quick end to the war. Upon his return to Washington, D.C., General Arnold ordered on June  that, in compliance with the recommendations of the Ramspeck committee report, the training program of the WASPs be discontinued as soon as those currently in classes finished.1 Because of the time involved in training, this meant that the training of women pilots by the AAF would end in December .2 In July, R. Earl McKaughan, president of Aviation Enterprises, the civilian firm responsible for training the WASPs, and his attorney, Ed Ponder, began an inquiry into the facts surrounding the order to end training, with the hopes of getting Congress to reconsider the WASP bill so that the firm’s pilot trainThey ’ll Be Home for Christmas The WASP Program Disbands 6  ing school at Avenger Field could remain open.3 In the meantime, McKaughan had solicited Avenger Field to the AAF Training Command as a training facility for male pilots and WASPs engaged in transitional training.4 After the AAF Central Training Detachment indicated an interest in using Avenger Field for the training of male pursuit pilots, McKaughan no longer made any attempts to address Congress about the WASPs. The “Lost” Class of WASPs The next class of WASPs (which would have been the first class to graduate in ) was scheduled to begin training at Avenger Field on June , just four days after General Arnold issued the order to conclude training.5 On June , Telegrams were sent under General Arnold’s name to the women who were to be part of this class, telling them that the training program had been canceled. The telegram read: Due to the recommendations of House Civil Service Committee and unfavorable action of House of Representatives on WASP bill your orders to report for WASP training thirty June nineteen forty four are cancelled.6 Because of the uncertainties of travel schedules during the war, most women who were in this class had already left their homes for the WASP training field in Texas. The telegram reached Eleanor Watterud at the Bluebonnet Hotel in Sweetwater, Texas. Many of the women who had been scheduled to begin the next class had, like Watterud, already arrived in the town nearest the training field or were well on their way to Texas when the announcements were sent out. All of these women were traveling at their own expense. Even many of those more fortunate candidates who had not already left for the training field had quit their jobs, sold their homes, and purchased the clothing and supplies they needed for WASP training.7 “When the girls that would have been in - came in, and were told, it was terrible. Some of them had sold their homes, because they were going into the service; some of them had made arrangements for their children; and there were so many things that just broke their hearts. It was so sad for us,” said WASP Betty Stagg Turner.8 For the next several days, the office of WASP director Jacqueline Cochran was inundated with calls from these women and their families. Some families, like that of Elizabeth Wadlow of Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, came from seeing their daughter off at...

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