Women in and out of Uniform

[femalepilot]

Black F-16 Female Fighter Pilot?
Anyone have more info ,please?
https://www.muyhistoria.es/contemporanea/preguntas-respuestas/quien-fue-la-primera-mujer-aviadora-en-cruzar-el-atlantico-441524065299

[femalepilot]

Former Spanish Navy Pilot Patricia Campos Doménech

[femalepilot]

Female Fighter Pilot
https://www.deviantart.com/losmeister/art/Aviator-596268734
Nothing is as sexy as women in powerful roles. Created in Daz Studio, minor postwork in Photoshop.

[femalepilot]

Meet Chief Pilot with Collier County Medflight, US Army Veteran Helicopter pilot & Military Mom Virginia Williams

https://youtu.be/WNz9k8CwylM
https://www.fox4now.com/news/local-news/in-her-corner-military-veteran-brings-skillset-to-collier-county-medflight
In Her Corner Military veteran brings skillset to Collier Co:
NAPLES, Fla. --"It's been twenty-five years, and I know it sounds really cheesy, but this is fun," said Chief Medflight Pilot Virginia Williams as she pointed to the helicopter behind her. As Williams went through the helicopter, pointing at switches and buttons, she had a smile from ear to ear. "She’s our baby girl," she said. Flying is clearly her passion now, but being a pilot wasn't always on her radar. As a young girl, Williams had a different career on her mind. "I always wanted to be a police officer or a soldier, but I didn’t know how to make them mesh." That’s exactly what Williams did. Her career took off when she joined the Military Police Corps, and that eventually lead her to become a drill sergeant at just 22-years-old. She knew her orders weren't going to be easy especially with a young daughter at home. Thanks to her military family though, she was able to make it through those times. "At 3:30, 3:45 in the morning-- I would scoop up my sleeping child put her on the couch, lock up the house and go to work," she explained. "There would be a week in a row I didn't see her with her eyes open." A few years later, Williams was stationed in Italy and a friend inspired her to take her career to new heights. “I saw what she was doing, she was flying Chinooks and had just got back from Iraq when I met her," said Williams. "I thought that looked really fun. And she, of course, encouraged me” From the get-go, Williams knew she wanted to be a pilot that helped people. Something that she still does currently as the Chief Pilot with Collier County Medflight. "There are a lot of cool things you can do with a helicopter, but what is more important than helping someone out." Williams admitted being a pilot meant taking on a completely new mindset. “When flying you have to be gentle and not dominant." Though it wasn’t always easy, it’s a career she would encourage others to think about. “Do it, just do it. Flight school wasn’t easy but it was one day at a time."

[femalepilot]

Air Force Mom Capt. Melissa Armstrong F-15E weapons system officer

Mothers can be a 'Force' of nature
https://www.idahopress.com/news/mothers-can-be-a-force-of-nature/article_355d11cf-60ad-5c10-a13d-f009d685fc9f.html
This Mother's Day story isn't about your typical mom. Capt. Melissa Armstrong, currently stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, has flown in 47 combat missions as a weapons system officer in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. In January of last year, she was fighting labor pains. By July, she was fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Her journey began when she signed up for the military after high school. Armstrong was looking to save lives, even then, although her path started in a different arena. Thinking she would be a doctor, Armstrong took a job as a scrub-tech in a cardiac catheterization lab, putting in pacemakers and heart stents. "My intention was to be a pre-med (student)," she said. She applied for and got a scholarship to Florida State University, a move that would change the trajectory of her life. Her military commander there happened to be an F-16 pilot. He noted something in Armstrong's quiet, steady resolve, and he posed the question: "Have you ever thought about flying?" Armstrong said she had never given it a thought; it was out of the realm of what she imagined could be possible. But after the idea was planted, it began to germinate. She enrolled in the Civil Air Patrol and took some test flights in a Cessna 152. She liked flying; it was fun, natural. She began quizzing pilots and listening to their stories about fighting for their country and saving lives. It was a different way to do what she'd started out to do — save lives.It became her passion."Once I wanted to do it, I was hooked," Armstrong said. "I didn't want to just fly; I wanted to be a fighter pilot." While in college, Armstrong met her now husband, Philip Armstrong. They married in 2013. Philip served in the military as a pararescueman, and he has since become a government contractor. After Armstrong graduated from college, she was commissioned and attended navigation school, selecting the fighter pilot track after a year of training.As a weapons system officer — what's called a "WSO," or "wizzo" — Armstrong sits in the second, or "aft," position behind the pilot in the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet."If you've seen 'Top Gun,' I'm Goose," she said.From her spot, she can't start or stop the engines, she said, but she can operate the controls. While it doesn't happen often, Armstrong said her role and position can take over if, say, a pilot experiences G-LOC (gravity-induced loss of consciousness) or spatial distortion. Usually, though, she'll take the controls when the pilot takes a break."We'll take over if the pilot wants to eat a sandwich or take a pee or if he would like a break from flying," said Armstrong, noting they sometimes fly in one stretch for long missions, up to six to eight hours."I enjoy flying," she said. "I'm constantly asking my pilot, 'Can I have the jet? Can I have the jet?' I've never landed from the back seat, but technically you can."But what Armstrong mainly focuses on during a mission is just as critical as flying the jet. It's her job to type in coordinates for the bombs and communicate with the team on the ground.After Armstrong graduated from her basic jet fighter training course, she went to her first duty station at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in England for about three years. She completed a few temporary assignments in Alaska, Spain and Israel. It was in Israel in late spring/early summer 2017 that Armstrong learned that she was pregnant. Armstrong had stocked up on pregnancy tests before leaving on the trip — she and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for almost a year. "When you're trying to get pregnant, you're constantly wondering if you're pregnant or not," she said. It also made planning a challenge. "It was, 'Oh, am I going to be going on deployment in three months — or am I going to be pregnant?'" Armstrong used her last remaining pregnancy test — and it was positive. But she wanted to make sure. "So I go to a pharmacy in Israel, and I'm trying to communicate to this lady that I need a pregnancy test — and she's trying to sell me condoms," Armstrong said, laughing. And, as per military protocol, after she found out she was pregnant, "I immediately had to stop flying," Armstrong said.A pregnant woman cannot fly in a F-15 E for a number of reasons: one is the ejection seat; another is the G-force. A Strike Eagle can hurtle through the atmosphere at 1,875 mph, compared to a commercial jet aircraft, which cruises at around 575 mph."We wear this thing called a G-suit," Armstrong said, which is an anti-gravity garment that inflates to keep you conscious, to keep blood from pooling in your feet and legs. "It's essentially like a giant balloon that, as you're flying, the more Gs you pull, the tighter it gets. It's around your legs and goes across your abdomen. … Good for staying conscious — but not good for a developing fetus."When she stopped flying, Armstrong became a maintenance group executive officer for nine months, while continuing simulator flight training.She did a lot of sim training while she was pregnant. It's kind of like playing a big video game — "but don't tell my husband that," Armstrong said, laughing. "It's really fun ... and it's a very valuable training tool." On Jan. 23, 2018, Nova Abella Armstrong was born.Armstrong was able to take what is now a standard three months of leave to be with her baby; the Air Force instituted a 12-week parental leave for the primary caregiver in June 2018."I love that I got the three months," Armstrong said. "I felt like it was definitely needed, and I enjoyed every minute of it."But when the three months was over, Armstrong was ready to get back in her WSO seat."I jumped right back into it headfirst," she said. And so, after a stint of requalification training, she was able to deploy with her squadron two months after reporting back to duty."I actually deployed when my daughter was 5-and-a-half months old," Armstrong said. It was hard, but she was OK with it because she had strong support where it mattered most."I could not have done it without my husband," Armstrong said. "He completely supported it. He didn't say, 'Oh, aren't you going to stay home longer?' or anything like that. He was very like, 'Go get it, girl.'"Armstrong said she could have forgone the three-month deployment — the Air Force has a policy that allows mothers to take a year pass on being deployed. If Armstrong had chosen that route, though, she wouldn't have been able to go for another three years, when it would again be time for her squadron to deploy."Where my squadron was, I wanted to be there," Armstrong said. "I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to give back. … I never deployed when I was younger, but I always wanted to. I always felt like I needed to deploy to do my part. A big part of the military is … going to do the job. It was something I wanted to do."She said some questioned her decision."A lot of people look at me kind of crazy when I tell them I deployed when she (Nova) was so young," Armstrong said. "But honestly, it was easy because she was so little, and my husband took off work. … He was a stay-at-home dad during that time, so I knew she was in great hands. And she absolutely adores her dad now, and he took excellent care of her."Philip took it as an opportunity to get close to his new little girl."It was a fun time to bond with my daughter," he said. "I loved every minute of it."Armstrong's family and friends pitched in, too."My mom got to spend grandma time with (Nova), and my dad got to see her a lot, my girlfriends," she said. "She didn't even go to day care until she was after a year old. Happiest baby in the world. Literally."So, when Armstrong was combat-mission ready, there was no second-guessing, no going back; she was all in.Armstrong had been training for that moment since 2013. She admits it was a big leap."Yes, it was a big switch from nursing an infant to … being over there," she said. "But I think honestly, my experience, it really added to it because it really opened my eyes to how lucky I am for having been born in America."Armstrong said she worried most about the children in the war-torn countries. Fighting ISIS was even more poignant since she had her own daughter now."These children are just innocent children, and they don't control where they're born — and I just was so grateful to be able to fight for them," she said. "As a mother, knowing that I have a child … she's not going to be able to remember my being gone when she was 5-and-a-half months old."Armstrong said she is proud she was able to fight, proud to have fought for her country, and for others who couldn't."I hope someday she looks at me and she's proud her mother participated in this war and this cause," Armstrong said.She logged between 200 and 300 combat hours during her three-month deployment and was on a rotation that gave her enough down time to keep her alert and calm and at her best."It was fly, fly, off; fly, fly, office day," she said. And she made sure she kept in close touch with her family, especially Nova."I FaceTimed with her almost every single day, which was great," she said. "She recognized my face on the screen. We had great Wi-Fi there."Back home, Philip waited patiently and made the best of his one-on-one time with Nova."Seeing my wife in a multifaceted way only makes me love her more," he said. "I am thankful she made me a dad; it’s the best job I’ve ever had the joy to experience."Still, Melissa Armstrong said some days were tough."One thing we're trained to do very well is to compartmentalize things.You have to put things in containers and basically seal them off when you're doing other things — and vice versa," she said. "Like when I went out and flew a mission, it didn't affect me differently if I FaceTimed with my daughter and vice versa. … You can't have a bad morning with your kids and let that affect how you fly. It always requires the same level of focus, and by compartmentalizing things we're able to execute, essentially. And I think everyone, moms and dads, husbands, wives, everyone — you have to do that. We're all people and we have these people interactions."Was Armstrong ever worried she might not make it back?"It goes through your mind — it can't not," she said. "But I seriously don't think it's any more risky than driving your car every day. We ultimately don't have that in our control. But luckily it's a different era than like what it was in the Vietnam era. Everyone in my whole squadron that went out there, every single one of us came back. The fatality rates of aviators have gotten extremely better over the years due to the way tactics are, the way wars are fought, and our training is a lot better. … So I felt pretty safe out there."I wouldn't say I 100% knew I was going to come home every time, but I felt very, very, very confident that I was going to."Philip Armstrong was equally confident."We both have dangerous jobs," he said, "and worrying about the 'what ifs' would only distract us from the moments and the mission."Today, Nova is 15 months old, and Melissa and Philip are expecting their second child in August. They are not going to find out the baby's gender beforehand as they did with Nova."We want it to be a surprise," she said.After taking another three months off for family leave, Armstrong said she'll be flying again in December.Would she ever be up for deploying again?She pauses. "I think so, yeah. I would definitely go again."Armstrong celebrated her first Mother's Day in England with her daughter last year."We were in a British pub," she said. "Nova was just learning how to stand."Philip, who was out of the country for work, had arranged for a friend to deliver flowers and a card, marked from Nova. He wanted Armstrong to get her first Mother's Day presents "from" her daughter.What does she hope to do to celebrate the day this year? Armstrong pauses, thinking a moment, then smiles."Hopefully, I'll get to sleep in and get breakfast in bed.

[femalepilot]

Watch her video:
https://www.idahopress.com/air-force-mom-video/video_4dd1d291-d82c-55e4-9f69-793a1d479498.html

[femalepilot]

Women Warriors at the Intrepid
http://www.westsidespirit.com/local-news/20190515/women-warriors-at-the-intrepid/3
Female fighter pilots — and other U.S. Air Force personnel — talk about their roles and challenges:
Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt F-15E pilot, Lieutenant Colonal Kristin Hubbard F-16 pilot, Captain Kristin Wolfe F-35 pilot, Captain Laney Schol A-10 pilot
We may have heard about women warriors, but it’s still a jolt to meet the nation’s first female fighter pilot, Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt. With her blond, loosely upswept hair and bangs, and her warm smile, Leavitt is disarming. But her no-nonsense, take-control voice assures that you would comfortably put your life in her hands. The central character in the film “Captain Marvel” is loosely based on her. Leavitt said she sees the film as “an opportunity to inspire.”I met Leavitt at AFCON, the first media outreach by the U.S. Air Force (AF) not held at the Pentagon. The all-day event was held on the former aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, now a floating museum berthed on the Hudson River.Leavitt said she finished first in her training class but was refused fighter pilot status because of her gender. When the policy changed in 1993 she was ready. Times have changed. Now, she said: “The AF wants diversity. We don’t have it. There are still too few women and minorities.”Among other things, Leavitt explained, it’s taken time for the AF to make accommodations to the female form. Uniforms had to be redesigned, as did vests and helmets. Adjustments had to be made for female-related medical issues and for pregnancies.The AF wants women to know that they can have families and still have rewarding careers. Lieutenant Colonel Kristin Hubbard is Commander, 310th Fighter Squadron. She is married and has two children. What does it take to be a fighter pilot? An aptitude for flying, of course, plus some technical degree you might have and the ability to ace the qualification test. Beyond all that, Hubbard pointed to grit and determination, a willingness to fail and a recognition of the importance of teamwork. Hubbard has a “call sign” on her name tag. She’s known as Kristin “Mother” Hubbard. Captain Kristin Wolfe’s call sign is “Beo,” and Captain Laney Schol’s is “Rogue.” The women laughed trying to explain about the call signs. “They’re given when you do something dumb in training,” the fighter pilot known as Rogue said. Maybe. But they’re worn with pride.Most important, according to “Mother” Hubbard, “the airplane doesn’t know the gender of the pilot.”
Nationwide Concerns
The timing of the U.S. Air Force visit to New York wasn’t ideal. It was held on the same day that news reports shouted a 50 percent increase in assaults on women in uniform. Asked about the Pentagon report, Leavitt said the AF is working to ensure “a culture of dignity and respect.” We clearly weren’t going to hear shared stories from her or the other women at AFCON about any issues.Leavitt said she agreed with the policy that leaves reports of sexual abuse within the chain of command. Critics of that policy, including some in Congress, are pushing for legislation that would create an independent prosecutor within the AF. Brigadier General Edward Thomas acknowledged that the military has a problem. However, he pointed to the #MeToo movement as revealing a nationwide concern that exists from Hollywood to our universities.At every stage of AFCOM, we were presented with dedicated personnel. To a man and woman, they were committed to sharing their positive experiences. Their enthusiasm was contagious.The AF made a point of showing how the service cares for its own. Captain Joseph Siler’s story was particularly poignant. Siler “handled” the constant stress of intelligence work for several years. Then, after volunteering, he “handled” his deployment to Afghanistan as the Distributed Ground Operations Liaison to a reconnaissance squadron. It was after he came home that the nightmares began. He confided in stark terms about the dark place he went to and how close he’d come to suicide.Years ago, AF personnel like Siler would have been a medical-out, discharged from the service for medical reasons. Now the AF has “resilience, recovery and redemption” plans for men and women like Siler, so they can return to work. Captain Siler currently serves as Chief of Intelligence Training, 492nd Special Operations Support Squadron.One of the AFCON panels featured computer-based printing called additive manufacturing (AM). Replacement parts that would cost thousands of dollars can be produced at vastly lower cost. AM uses high-grade powdered metals and creates solid objects from the metal dust particles. There is little waste, and excess powder can be reused.Bradley Rothenberg is founder of a startup in downtown Manhattan that engineers software for AM. He joined a General Electric executive and a Dayton University researcher, to discuss the possibilities. They said that Holland is building a bridge with AM technology.While the AF is proud of its role supporting forces on the ground, its mission is larger than that. The day of panels and interactions with Air Force personnel more than proved the point.

[femalepilot]

Anyone know who is this usaf female F-16 pilot in Japan?
https://twitter.com/tonburi/status/1041267544064028672
https://4travel.jp/travelogue/11404041
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpBQ99ggf7w/
横田基地友好祭-在韓米軍クサン所属-F16の女性パイロット

[femalepilot]

Taiwan (ROCAF) female fighter pilot trainee Flying Officer 女飛官 Peng Chongen 彭寵恩
https://www.ewmib.com/news.php?news_id=285&cate_id=1
https://www.ydn.com.tw/News/253651
https://www.ydn.com.tw/News/245853

[femalepilot]

Taiwan (ROCAF) female fighter pilot trainee Flying Officer 女飛官 Peng Chongen 彭寵恩

[femalepilot]

Female Deep-Sea Diver Tenley Lozano, Coast Guard, 2009-14
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/magazine/women-military-stories.html
https://www.tenleylozano.com/multimedia-projects
I served in the Coast Guard for five years, first as a shipboard engineer and then as a deep-sea diver. My first unit conducted counternarcotic missions in the Eastern Pacific. I was the first American citizen to go onboard a Colombian narcotics submarine and evaluate its safety, because of my proven willingness to fit into tight and dangerous spaces. Standing in the entrance, I realized there was no way of seeing what was happening outside the sub once the watertight hatch above was sealed. I began to understand why the four men had locked themselves inside the vessel the night before, believing that the Coast Guard boarding team was actually a group of competing drug smugglers that had come to kill them. The boarding team would later remove one bale of cocaine from the narco-sub. The vessel was then sunk with most of the estimated six tons of cocaine onboard, so it wouldn’t be a hazard to navigation.

[jaws]

Anyone know who is this usaf female F-16 pilot in Japan?
https://twitter.com/tonburi/status/1041267544064028672
https://4travel.jp/travelogue/11404041
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpBQ99ggf7w/
横田基地友好祭-在韓米軍クサン所属-F16の女性パイロット

Her name patch says Emily "Banzai" Thompson

[femalepilot]

The first female USAF fighter pilot to die in a crash, Capt. Amy Lynn Svoboda (1968-1997) is rememberd by her former wingman Rep. Senator Martha McSally on memorial day. Watch her real taped movie on 02:10 preflights T-37 and strapped in cockpit and the memories of Sen. McSally about her
https://youtu.be/ypSUN0oLEGI

[femalepilot]

Dudette Flight with the Finest!
Yes, Ladies!!! All Female F-15E Fighter Crew!!!

Fighter Pilots & WSO (L-R): Alllison Mandas, Lauren Schlichting, Becca Baird & Rachel Cornelius

fbcdn.net

[vilters]

One would create a war in ones backyard, just to get a visit from these fine ladies.