Hannah Lincoln (Harkness) Love (1914 - 1976)

Born 14 Feb 1914 in Houghton, Michigan, USA

Ancestors

Wife of Robert MacLure Love — married 11 Jan 1936 in Hastings, Barry, Michigan, United States

Died 22 Oct 1976 at age 62 in Martha's Vineyard, West Tisbury, Dukes, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Judy Dimmick [send private message]

Biography

Hannah (Harkness) Love was awarded the Air Medal.

Lt. Col. Hannah (Harkness) Love served in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II
Service started: 1942
Unit(s): Air Transport Auxiliary, 2nd Ferrying Command
Service ended: 1945

Hannah (Harkness) Love is Notable.

Hannah Lincoln 'Nancy' Harkness Love achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1942. In 1936, she married Robert M. Love, an Air Corps Reserve major. They built their own successful Boston-based aviation company, Inter City Aviation, for which Nancy was a pilot. She also flew for the Bureau of Air Commerce. In May 1940, soon after World War II broke out in Europe, Nancy Love wrote to Lt. Col. Robert Olds, then in the Plans Division of Air Corps Headquarters but who a year later would be in charge of establishing the Air Corps Ferrying Command, that she had found 49 excellent women pilots, who each had more than a thousand flying hours and could help transport planes from factories to bases. Olds submitted a plan for integrating civilian female pilots in the Ferrying Command to Gen. Hap Arnold, commanding general of the United States Army Air Forces, who turned it down after Jacqueline Cochran extracted a promise from him not to act on any proposal regarding women pilots that did not make them commissioned officers commanded by women.

Nancy Love, and Betty (Huyler) Gillies, co-pilot, were the first women to fly the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. The two WAFS were set to ferry a B-17 named Queen Bee to England when their flight was canceled by General Hap Arnold.

In early 1942, her husband, Robert Love, was called to active duty in the Munitions Building, Washington, D. C. as the deputy chief of staff of the Air Transport Command. Nancy Love accompanied him to Washington and on March 11 took a civil service position in Baltimore, Maryland with the Operations Office of the Ferrying Command's Northeast Sector (soon redesignated 2nd Ferrying Group), Domestic Division. The Domestic Division, commanded by Col. William H. Tunner, was designated Ferrying Division, Air Transport Command (ATC) a few months later. The offices of Major Love and Col. Tunner were near each other, and during a conversation between them, her piloting skills caught the attention of Tunner, who was scouring the country for skilled pilots to deliver aircraft from factories to fields. Major Love suggested Tunner speak to his wife directly. As World War II crept closer, the need for aircraft in Europe grew. Love suggested utilizing women to ferry aircraft from factories to military airfields, but her dream would not become reality until 1942. When the idea was finally accepted, Love was named a commander and the WAFS (Women's Auxiliary Ferry Pilots) came into being. Later the WAFS became the WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilots). Love and her women pilots had an uphill battle to be accepted. She was the first woman to be certified to fly the North American P-51 Mustang, C-54, B-25 Mitchell, and along with Betty Gillies, the B-17 Flying Fortress. She was certified in 16 military aircraft, including the Douglas C-47 and the A-36.

In 1944, after the WASPs were disbanded, Love continued to work on the Air Transport Command's Report. She set a record of being the first woman in aviation to make a flight around the world. She flew the plane at least half of the time, including crossing over the Himalayas. At the end of the war, Nancy Love and her husband had the unique distinction of being decorated simultaneously. He received the Distinguished Service Medal, and she received the Air Medal for her "Operational leadership in the successful training and assignment of over 300 qualified women fliers in the flying of advanced military aircraft". After the war, Nancy Love had three daughters, but she continued as an aviation industry leader, as well as a champion for recognition as military veterans for the women who had served as WASPs. In 1948, after the creation of the United States Air Force she was designated the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. Love died of cancer at the age of 62 in 1976, so she did not live to see the WASPs being accorded military recognition three years later. The WASPs were recognized in 1977, shortly after her death.

Sources

• Nancy Harkness Love on Military Fandom Wiki
• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #101163009 (accessed 4 December 2023)
  Memorial page for Hannah Lincoln “Nancy” Harkness Love (14 Feb 1914-22 Oct 1976), citing Oak Grove Cemetery, Tisbury, Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Daniel Pletcher (contributor 47418370).
• "NANCY HARKNESS LOVE: FEMALE PILOT AND FIRST TO FLY FOR THE U.S. MILITARY", Deborah Douglas, 2006 Jun 12, on HistoryNet. Accessed 4 Dec 2023.
• "United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4JK-1ZF : Tue Nov 28 16:16:02 UTC 2023), Entry for Robert M Love and Nancy H Love, 1940.