Pamela Nyman

Wings of Angels Pamela Nyman

There was no wonder why Randi Kraft learned to fly before she learned to put on makeup. Her widowed father knew nothing of the needs of a young girl and everything about planes. As a social outcast, Randi had only one friend, and he was the most popular boy in school and her ground school student. Randi is convinced that her bad luck is about to get much worse. Her itinerant father announces he is moving again. Her fantasy boyfriend, identified by the kids at school as her only friend, is going off to college. All too soon, Randi?s life is about to be transformed by a world at war. Flying for a California airfreight company earns enough money to pay for college expenses. Regrettably, Japanese bombs falling over Pearl Harbor shatter lives of every American, but like most, Randi doesn?t have time to worry about what might have been. Military efforts ramped up overseas, open opportunities to serve on the home front. Aviatress Jackie Cochran pitches for an upstart, female flying group to fly planes throughout the United States. Randi signs up. The women are targeted to fail by an all-male Army Air Corps. Complain, and the program is dead, even if termite-riddled training planes are pushed through a hole in the fence. Despite the rough conditions, the first class graduates. Carving out respect from the men is not an easy feat. Women have to rely on sheer ability and fortitude. Landing planes with failing engines pulls a few positive opinions from their airfield ground crews. A few more women win many men over with fancy flying while towing targets with live artillery rounds. When Randi?s airplane takes live artillery fire as her engine fails and she is forced down, Randi has to spend time healing. As a woman pilot, she pays her own hospital bill and transportation home. Once healed, Randi is forced down during a sandstorm in Phoenix, Arizona. Due to her severe injuries, Randi never makes it back to duty as a WASP. It is time for her new challenge, true love.