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Joanne W. Orr Oral History Side A
Publication date: 31 July 2024
File metadata
Dublin Core Metadata
title:
Joanne W. Orr Oral History Side A
creator:
Orr, Joanne (Wallace) (1920 November 7 - )
subject:
Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP)
description:
Side 1 of 2. This is the original, unedited interview audio. Joanne W. Orr (formerly Wallace) was born on November 7, 1920 in Springfield, Massachusetts. She graduated from Barrington School, Erskine, and Finch Secretarial School in Boston, Massachusetts, completing the two-year program in six months. She finished school around the same time as the emergence of the WASP program during World War II. The program required 40 flight hours to join, so she went to Stormville, New York and flew small planes out of a cornfield until she reached the requirement. She officially joined the program with a woman who became her best friend in June 1943. She went to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas for seven months of training total, which included basic and advanced flight and plane instruments. The women were trained entirely by men who openly admitted that their main goal was to wash out as many of the women as possible. After training she was assigned to Ferry Command, which included four stations: New Castle Air Force Base, Wilmington, Delaware; Long Beach, California; Romulus Michigan; and Dallas, Texas. She was the first woman in five WASP classes to be assigned to Ferry Command. Part of her duties included delivering bombers to Russians in Great Falls, Montana and the English in Savannah, Georgia. Orr left the service in December 1944, and she was awarded an American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, an Congressional Gold Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.
publisher:
Military Women's Memorial Foundation
contributor:
Taggart, Townsend E.
date:
1991-05-20
type:
Audio
format:
Cassette
identifier:
51.042
source:
NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk
language:
English
relation:
194972
coverage:
World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-44
rights:
Unrestricted