#167 Jackie Cochran (Aviation)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. I'm Jackie Cochran, she said, pumping my hand. Great job, Captain Yager. We're all really proud of you. She invited me to lunch acting as if I should know exactly who she was, and caused an uproar just by entering the posh Washington restaurant. The owner began bowing and scraping, and the waiters went flying. In between pumping me for all the details of my flights, I learned a little about who she was.
She was a honcho on several important aviation boards and committees, and was a famous aviatrix before the war, winner of the Bendrix Air Races. She had been a close friend of Amelia Earhart's.
During the war, she was a colonel in charge of the WASPs, the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, and ferried B-17 bombers to England. Hell, she knew everybody and bounced all over the world. On VE Day, she was one of the first Americans to get down inside Hitler's bunker in Berlin and came away with a gold doorknob off his bathroom by trading for it with a Russian soldier for a pack of cigarettes.
On VJ Day, she was in Tokyo playing poker with a couple of generals on MacArthur's staff and conned her way on board the Battleship Missouri to watch the surrender ceremonies.
As I would learn more than once over the next couple of decades, when Jackie Cochran set her mind to do something, she was a damn Sherman tank at full steam. She was as nuts about flying as I was. If I were a man, she said, I would have been a war ace just like you. I'm a damn good pilot. All these generals would be pounding on my door instead of the other way around. Being a woman, I need all the clout I can get.
But clout was no problem for Jackie. Her husband was Floyd Oldlam, who owned General Dynamics, the Atlas Corporation, RKO, and a bunch of other companies.
We liked each other right off the bat. I could talk flying with her just as if she were a regular at Ponchos. She knew airplanes and said flat out that flying was the most important thing in her life.
She was tough and bossy and used to getting her own way. But I figured that's how rich people behaved. When we parted that day, she said, let's stay in touch. We sure did that.
Glenis and I became Jackie and Floyd's closest friends. It was a friendship that lasted more than 25 years until their deaths. I was the executor of Floyd's estate. They treated me like an adopted son. I flew around the world with Jackie and she was right. She was a damn good pilot, one of the best.
And I'm sure the reason she latched on to me was because for Jackie, nothing but the best would do. And she thought I was the best pilot in the Air Force.
Hell, she said that to anybody, anytime.
Jackie played a big role in my life and I in hers.
I met two sitting presidents in her living room. Wherever she traveled overseas, she was treated like a visiting head of state.
I never met anyone like her, man or woman. She came on like a human steamroller.
Jackie Cochran didn't own a pair of shoes until she was eight years old. Compared to what she suffered as a child in rural Florida, I was raised like a country gentleman. She never knew her real parents or why she was given away. The people who raised her lived in a shack without power or running water.