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16 Kokkinaki How overjoyed I was to be once again hurrying to the aeroc1ub after work, where each day a waiting truck carried us to the aerodrome, far outside the city. Late that autumn we passed the state theory and practical flight tests, but our group was then immediately disbanded, awaiting special orders. I had lost all hope of re-enrolling in the military flight school. Besides me, five other women trained in our detachment, all native to Smolensk. I was a stranger there, the last in line, I reasoned dismally, and in despair I nearly gave up on the aeroc1ub altogether. I began studying for the entrance examinations to an aviation institute. If I couldn't continue training, I figured, at least I could be involved with aviation. My brother Vasily had once urged me to study at an institute. I had written to him but received no reply. Where was he now? Somewhere far away, probably in the North, serving his time, denied the right to answer my letter. Six months ago I had bid farewell to him and to Moscow, the Metrostroy, the aeroc1ub, my comrades, and Viktor. .. Mama wrote to tell me that a friend had helped her compose a petition to our countryman, Chairman Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin. She waited and waited for an answer, then decided to go to Moscow herself. So Vasily's wife Katya and her son Yuri escorted Mama to see the All-Union Elder. After waiting in a long line, they were ushered in to see, to their disappointment, not the bearded Kalinin, but a minor assistant, who said simply, "Mikhail Ivanovich isn' t considering such applications." I continued working at the flax factory, studied with the glider cadets twice a week, and took preparatory courses to enroll in the institute. On one of my evenings off, I sat down in a cafe and ordered a scoop of ice cream. "Yegorova!" someone yelled from behind me. I turned toward the voice and saw the aeroc1ub commissar. He introduced his wife and daughter to me and invited me to join them. "Why haven' t I seen you at the aeroc1ub much lately?" he asked. I shared my doubts with him. "That's silly," he said. "Just yesterday we decided after a long debate to assign you the single female spot at the Kherson1 Flight School. liMe?" 1 A port city in southern Ukraine on the Dnieper River near its mouth at the Black Sea. KOKKI NAKI 57 "Yes, you, Kokkinaki!"2 he said, turning to his wife. "You see, all the students call her 'Kokkinaki,' and so do 1." Everyone laughed. "You can call me that whenever you wish," 1 said. "I like it." "You need to come to the aeroclub tomorrow to collect your orders and your dismissal from the factory, then get yourself to Kherson right away," he said. "Prepare yourself: you'll have to take entrance exams on academic subjects . The competition will be fierce." Graduates of aeroclubs from all over the country converged on Kherson -from Moscow and Leningrad, Arkhangelsk and Baku, Komsomolsk-onAmur and Minsk, Tashkent and Dushanbe. The navigation department accepted females, but the instructor-pilot section took only males. Again, 1 passed through the admissions gauntlet: medical board, entrance exams, and credentials committee. Fortunately, the math exams were given by an old pedagogical professor who couldn't hear very well. We prompted each other, and everyone did quite well on the math section. But our ranks were thinning. Following tl1e kind Secretary's advice, 1 did not mention my oldest brother. When the Scl100l posted the lists of those accepted, 1 found my name: "Alma Yegorova-navigation school." 1 felt none of the delirious joy I'd experienced in Ulyanovsk, but 1 ran to the post office all the same to send Mama a telegram. 1hoped the news would give her happiness. Now that I'm a mother, 1 know how she must have felt when she received my telegram. When my son told me he hoped to enroll in military flight school, 1 did everything 1 could to dissuade him. He seemed to agree at first, but then, two weeks later, he came to see me. "Mama!" he said. "You gave me my love of flying, like milk from your breast. Since 1 was a baby, 1 have listened to stories about airplanes. 1 know how hard it was for you to become a pilot, but you did it, all by yourself. You've...

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