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National Air Mail Week Covers of IndianaDwight P. Church, who was unhurt after a crack-up in Lowville, New York.Because NAMW flights were often the first air-mail flights for many small towns, it%u2019s common to find cachets declaring that it was a %u201cFirst Flight.%u201d However, they were often the community%u2019s very last air-mail flights as well. There would simply never be enough mail volume to justify so extensive a service on a regular basis. The PilotsThe 1,700 pilots who flew these special NAMW flights volunteered their services, and were sworn in as temporary U.S. government employees for 24 hours. Most of the pilots were men, but there also a few women. Blanche Noyes, winner of the 1934 Bendix Air Race Trophy, and Edith Bernson, who took first-prize in the 1935 National Air Mail WeekAmelia Earhart air races and second in the 1934 Miami, Florida races, both flew NAMW planes in Massachusetts. New York had a roster of interesting pilots, including Alma Harwood, the %u201cFlying Grandma,%u201d Roger Wolfe Dr. Theodor Cable, an African-American graduate of Harvard and the Indiana University School of Dentistry, was a NAMW pilot.Louis W. Lynch, pilot of Brazil Indiana%u2019s NAMW flight.Kahn, a millionaire bandleader, as well as a priest, and two doctors. In California, a staggering 5,193 miles were flown, and 6 of the 90 pilots were women. Helen House, an Indiana aviatrix and flight instructor, flew a batch of NAMW mail from her home airport in Rochester to South Bend. With a transport rating%u2014the highest government pilot license obtainable%u2014her cabinstyle monoplane headed north at 9:30 am and arrived at the South Bend airport at 10 o%u2019clock with 154 letters from Rochester, 59 from Akron, and 51 from Kewanna. Because