Celeste Graves

A View from the Doghouse: of the 319th Aafwftd Celeste Graves

In 1997 an instructor mentioned to me that he would like to know what happened to his women students after World War II. What started out as a"booklet" turned into a "book" with profiles of the first three classes of the 319th AAFWFTD (Army Air Force Women's Flight Training Detachment). Those who trained at Municipal Airport had many hardships that future classes did not encounter. They were not given the same military privileges as the men and had to pay their own way to the training facilities. They were required to have at least 200 hours of flying time and had to pay all of their own expenses while training. Some were trained by instructors who had less experience flying than they had. Quite a few books have been written about the WASP in Sweetwater, Texas but very few about the Houston group. They were known as the 319th AAFWFTD and were not named WASP until August of 1943. My job was to keep up with their flying timeto submit reports to the government for payment. My office was called "The Doghouse" and was aglass building sitting near the runway. I was completely in awe thinking what these ladies had to go through inorder to serve their country. They have since been recognized by the military, but it took many years to obtain that status.