Violet Cowden

Who was Violet Cowden?

Violet "Vi" Cowden was an American aviator who served as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. Cowden was one of the surviving members of the 1,074 WASPs, who were the first women to fly American military planes.

Cowden was born Violet Thurn and raised on a farm in Bowdle South Dakota. She taught first grade students in Spearfish, South Dakota.

Cowden was issued her pilot's license before the United States entered World War II. She initially enlisted in the a volunteer women's emergency service program following the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. However, before her basic training began, Cowden joined another all women's program created by Jacqueline Cochran and General Hap Arnold through the Army Air Corps, which came to be called the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. However, Cowden who weighed only 92 pounds and stood at just 5-feet-2-inches tall at the time, was too short and too light to join the WASPs. To quickly gain weight she ate bananas and drank milk and to make herself taller she tied a wrap in her hair. She successfully gained the eight additional pounds and two inches needed to enlist.