![]() Tanker and airlift crews welcomed an earlier generation of women such as Col. As a highly skilled young female pilot, Flynn’s next option after the FAIP assignment most likely would have been to KC-10s, the cream of the crop of flying assignments outside the fighter and bomber communities. Flynn made the grade by objective standards but found her options limited by a policy suggesting women would get in over their heads.Īspin’s 1993 decision came just in time for Flynn. Rice, who found his hands tied by Pentagon policy.įlynn’s case pointed out the discrepancy between the exclusion policy and the Air Force’s standards. Meanwhile, Flynn’s case wound its way through the bureaucracy, ultimately to be reviewed by Air Force Secretary Donald B. With the policy restriction still in place, the Air Force could not comply and sent Flynn to be a First Assignment Instructor Pilot, teaching students to fly the T-38. Flynn earned the right to choose first, and she selected the plum: an F-15E assignment. Typical pilot training classes competed for one or two fighter seats. The early 1990s were the days of banked pilots and dwindling choices for assignments. Air Force rules called for newly minted pilots to select their weapon system based on merit and cockpit availability. Flynn had graduated first in her Undergraduate Pilot Training class in 1992. Flynn was commissioned through ROTC and received a master’s degree in aerospace engineering before heading off to pilot training. The Air Force had already been contemplating how to respond, and nothing brought the matter to a head more clearly than the case of a young lieutenant named Jeannie M. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin lifted the policy ban on April 28, 1993. But Department of Defense policy still prohibited women from taking up combat aircraft assignments. Meanwhile, from Stateside training bases to deployed locations all over the world, the cadre of female fighter and bomber pilots flourished.Ĭongress removed the legal ban on women in combat aircraft by passing Public Law 102-190 in December 1991. Commentators labeled the issue of women in the cockpit as social engineering and predicted readiness would suffer. Flinn made headlines in 1997 when she was discharged from the Air Force for disciplinary issues. Accusations of improper Navy training procedures followed. Hultgreen died in a carrier landing in October 1994. ![]() Media interest surged when Navy F-14 pilot Lt. Two women pilots spurred negative attention early on. Since then, dozens of female officers have completed rigorous training to become proficient in flying fighters and bombers.Ĭritics predicted they’d never integrate smoothly. Baja, Combo, Spyce, Shooter, Shock: They’re all call signs of mission-qualified fighter and bomber pilots, and the only unusual thing about them is that these monikers of warrior-group bonding belong to women.Īpril 2003 will mark 10 years since the Air Force changed its policy to permit women to take up combat assignments as fighter and bomber pilots.
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