No Barrier Could Ground Her; Aim High: Jacqueline Cochran's determination broke records, stereotypes.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

Byline: BRIAN DEAGON

As a youngster, Jacqueline Cochran slept on pallets and wore dresses made of flour sacks.

Her first pair of shoes didn't come until age 8, when she started working 12-hour days at a cotton mill earning 6 cents an hour.

But by the time of her death, Cochran (1906-80) had been lauded and awarded by every president from Franklin Roosevelt on. She set more aviation records than anyone else and was the first woman to break the sound barrier.

"I might have been born in a hovel, but I determined to travel with the wind and stars," she said.

That she did. One of Cochran's greatest achievements was to help establish and run the Woman Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, during World War II. She oversaw the training of 1,074 female pilots. Over two years the WASP flew more than 75 million miles and 12,000 hours ferrying aircraft and troops and assisting in flight combat training.

In 1953, encouraged...

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