love became the commanding officer of the ferry squadron in new castle, delaware, which ferre ideaed planes around the country from factories to airbases. not long after that, cochran became commanding officer of the 319th women's flying training detachment in houston, texas, which provided basic flight instruction for the army air forces. on august 5, 1942 -- 1943, the squadrons were combined to form the women's air force service pilots. over 25,000 women applied to become pilots and only some 1,900 were selected for training. of these almost 1,100 eventually earned their wings, many in the hometown of sweet water, texas, in the district i get to represent. the women who volunteered to fly planes faced a world that we can squaresly imagine. while complaints of sexism in the workplace still continue today, in the 1940's, sexism was not the exception but the standard operating practice. the women of the wasp were paid less, trained within with inferior equipment, -- trained with inferior equipment and faced an openly hostile working environment. they had to pay for their room and boar