World War II Women in Aviation: An Exploration in Leadership

During the Second World War, the Soviet Union and United States established segregated organizations for the purpose of recruiting and training women for aviation duties. In both nations, it was individuals, rather than the military establishment, who proposed and developed plans for the use of women aviators. The women who spearheaded those efforts had dramatically different leadership styles, from Marina Raskova’s quiet, businesslike, and approachable character, to Jacqueline Cochran’s brash, forceful, and sometimes antagonistic nature. Yet they employed strikingly similar methods to achieve their goals. This presentation will examine the parallels and differences in the lives and achievements of these two remarkable women.

Reina Pennington, PhD, is a former Air Force intelligence officer; she served as a Soviet analyst with F-4 and F-16 fighter squadrons, the Aggressor Squadrons, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Alaskan Air Command. She has taught military and Russian History at Norwich University since 1999, and has received the institution’s highest awards in both research and teaching. She served for eight years as an elected trustee of the Society for Military History and ten years as a Presidential Counselor for the National WWII Museum. She is the author of Wings, Women and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat, and is presently working on a book entitled What Russia Can Teach Us About War.