The Jackie Cochran story is the true story of a true heroine. It is the story of an accomplished aviatrix and her journey prior to WWII, during, and after the war. She was instrumental in the war effort and helped to develop the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.  

As a dual major in Business and Theatre in my undergraduate studies, I developed a passion for the arts and storytelling. I decided that someday I would write a screenplay for a story that has never been told.

The idea for researching and writing a story about a great aviator was in honor of my identical twin brother, Kevin, who loved aviation. Kevin’s dream was to fly jets in the military, however, that dream was sidelined when we both developed nearsighted vision in middle school. Kevin studied business at Clemson University, earned a finance degree, a Series 7 and Series 66.

Kevin was a great guy who would do anything for anyone. After college, he was a successful financial advisor for a large, well-known firm. He loved his career but after discovering that some of his mentors and managers lacked integrity, he was disheartened and considered switching gears. A good friend of ours was a naval flight instructor who informed Kevin of the new rules that allowed aviation candidates to have corrected vision. Kevin was elated and contacted the local Navy recruiter right away. He received the bad news that his chances for aviation in the Navy were slim being that there were already many qualified applicants. He contacted the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps said they would love to have him.

Kevin completed the first step in his new journey by getting PRK surgery to correct his vision. Before officially signing on, Kevin had to wait for the Marine Corps to approve a waiver for his eyes, which could take months. The cutoff age for aviation applicants was 27. Kevin woke me up with a phone call at about 1 am on a Tuesday morning and said, “I’m calling to say goodbye.” We chatted for awhile and he told me he was sure his waiver wouldn’t be approved. I tried to encourage him and thought he was in better spirits when I eventually hung up the phone. I didn’t know the pain he was in due to the depression he had been facing and didn’t take him seriously. He lost hope two months shy of our 27^th birthday and took his life that morning. I answered a call on his cell phone two weeks later. It was a Marine Corps officer calling to share the great news that his waiver had been approved. I was completely derailed. Kevin would be flying.

After Kevin’s death, I decided that nothing was more important to me in life than family. In 2010, I left my job in New York City to head to Florida to care for my father who had suffered a couple heart attacks and had been in failing health for about a year. His heart was weak with an ejection fraction at a mere 11%. It was difficult to see my father in such a fragile state. My hero was a retired Army Colonel and brave combat veteran who chose to go to Vietnam in 1967 as long as he could serve in the 1^st Cavalry Division. At 73 years old, he was losing the battle for his life.

My dad and I spent our days in and out of hospitals and medical offices. In the evenings, I would make dinner and we would spend time watching old movies and WW2 documentaries. It was during this time that I learned that when my dad was a 9-year-old boy, he had wished he had been born sooner so that he could have been a B-17 pilot in the war. The love of aviation was in our blood.

While dad was resting one afternoon, I started researching WW2 aviators and discovered the story of Jackie Cochran. I was well versed in WW2 history at the time, yet I had never heard of this woman. I read as much as I could find about the WASPs at Avenger Field, and I was immediately intrigued. I ordered every book I could find, opened Final Draft and started writing, as I knew it would be a great movie. None had ever been made and there were only a couple books ever published that were exclusively about her.

In March 2011, my dad had recovered enough to begin caring for himself. I felt it was time for me to move on and had an opportunity to interview for a marketing position with an aerospace engineering company in Abu Dhabi, UAE. I received an offer that I couldn’t refuse and decided to take it being that my father’s health seemed to be improving to a degree. He was excited for me to take the job but also a little worried about me being so far away. Over the two-month period that the company was getting the visa and other documents in order, my father’s health took a rapid turn for the worse.

After an ablation procedure at the Mayo Clinic, he coded but was resuscitated and on life support. The physicians explained how dire the situation was and told me he had just hours to live. Miraculously, he was extubated and in a rehabilitation facility two weeks later. On my last day with him, we watched Band of Brothers in his room at rehab. Two hours later I was at the airport about to board a plane to Dubai when I found out his defibrillator fired again, and he had been admitted to the ICU. I knew in my heart that I would never see him again, but I had to go. He passed away two weeks after I arrived in UAE.

While I was working at the aerospace company in Abu Dhabi, I shared the idea of my story with a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel co-worker/ friend of mine. He was an Air Force F-15 pilot that went by the call sign Skins. Skins knew aviation history very well. His father was a WWII aviator and recreational pilot, and his brother was a stunt pilot in the film industry. Tragically Skins’ father was killed in an airshow accident in the 1970s when Skins was just 13. When discussing the Jackie Cochran story and her WASP program at Avenger Field, Skins said, “Rob, you’ve got a great story that’s never been told that needs to be told.”

Just three months after arriving in the UAE, I was laid off from the Emirati-owned aerospace company. I had come to realize that when a company is having financial difficulty, marketing is always one of the first departments to go. While I was upset about the news, I was still sad about my father’s recent death and was ready to start the next chapter back in the United States.

Skins encouraged me to keep writing the story. We discussed a scene I had been working on in which Jackie loans her surplus WWII P-51 to her friend for a pylon race. In that scene, the plane crashes into a house killing the pilot as well as a young woman and her son. I did not yet have the specifics of how the actual crash in Cleveland in 1949 happened. I did not know yet that the crash of Jackie’s plane halted pylon racing for 15 years until the event was moved to Reno in 1964. I did not know yet who was involved, but I wanted to make it as historically accurate as possible.

While Skins had experience flying P-51s, he didn’t know the details of the accident, but thought it would be good for me to witness actual WWII warbirds fly in a pylon race. Skins was on the board of directors at the Reno Air Races and invited me to join him in September 2011. Skins knew Reno would give me a great perspective of air racing, especially writing for the pylon race scene.

At the last minute, Skins had to cancel plans to attend. Because he couldn’t make it, his guests were not going to be in attendance either. Skins left a pair box seat tickets and pit passes for me at my hotel in Reno and told me to “meet a hot girl and bring her.” After the long trip from Florida, I checked into the hotel after midnight and went to bed.

On Thursday morning I ran into a retired man in the pit area that I met on the airplane to Reno. He told me to “check out the Galloping Ghost. The pilot is from your neck of the woods.” I took his advice and found Jimmy Leeward’s P-51. It was beautiful. Unlike some of the other planes that were painted in modern racing colors, the Galloping Ghost was a sleek silver just like it would have been in post-war racing the late 1940s.

On day one of the races, I wandered between box seats that I had to myself and the pit area, taking in as much as possible. On Thursday night I heeded Skins’ advice and sought out a hot girl to bring Friday. I found a local girl named Jen at a casino bar and she was interested in joining me. The next morning, Jen texted to say that she tried to call in sick but was a bad liar and wouldn’t be able to come along.

I wandered through the pit on Friday and saw many warbirds. I watched the Galloping Ghost due her engine run-ups with the cowlings off, prepping for her first race of the event. But as I sat alone in the empty box seats on Friday afternoon, an eerie feeling washed over me. I decided to leave the airfield 30 minutes before the start of the last race of the day that featured the gold class of WWII warbirds. 

As soon as the bus pulled up to the hotel, Jen texted me to see if I was okay. She said her sister called and informed her that a plane had crashed into the audience. Skins texted a few minutes later, sure that I wasn’t okay. I told him I had a strange feeling and left the airfield. He said, “thank God. That plane crashed into the seats you were sitting in. You’ve got a guardian angel.” I asked what plane it was. Skins said, “The Galloping Ghost.” The airplane hit the ground so hard and so fast that it extinguished any sparks that should have ignited spilled fuel and caused mass casualties. Still, 11 people were killed and 69 others seriously injured. It remains the 3^rd deadliest airshow disaster in U.S. history.

The entire Reno experience, including the sadness I felt for the families that lost loved ones, inspired me to continue working on the story. It was now extremely important to include the pylon racing scene and get the details of the accident in 1949. I came across an old article in which the pilot of the plane that had been neck and neck with Jackie’s P-51 that crashed in Cleveland reported what happened. It turns out he was flying The Galloping Ghost. The same plane that should have killed me at Reno. I feel it’s more than simply a coincidence. Perhaps I have a guardian angel. Perhaps God wanted me to tell the story of Jackie Cochran, the WASPs at Avenger Field, and air racing.

I spent years researching, writing, and polishing the script. For a long time, I was reluctant to send the script or even logline out to anyone that didn’t know me. I sat on it for many years. I took a chance in November 2021, and I sent the idea of Jackie’s story in a logline to several agents at one of the largest talent agencies in Los Angeles. I was shocked to learn in March 2022 that there’s now a TV series in development about Jackie Cochran (Renée Zellweger) and the WASPs at Avenger Field. Whether or not it’s a coincidence that after all these years that Jackie’s story was overlooked and and that the agents that I reached out to are involved in the production is something that I’ll never know.  I’m a person of integrity and like to give everyone the benefit of doubt.

What I do know is that I have a great story that needs to be told. I don’t consider myself derailed once again and I am excited that my story is evolving. The script that I started writing in 2010 includes some of the story of Avenger Field. But it is more than that. It is Jackie’s story.

I am open to collaboration with anyone that can help give this story wings.

Rob Coté