The Navy‘s aerial demonstration squadron — the Blue Angels — introduced that it has chosen its first feminine jet pilot within the unit’s 76-year historical past.
In a social media publish Monday, the Blue Angels introduced that F/A-18 Tremendous Hornet pilot Lt. Amanda Lee has been chosen to hitch the famed unit. Lee is at present assigned to the “Gladiators” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia.
Lee’s identify was amongst six officers who will be a part of the squadron in September and begin performances subsequent yr.
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Lee, who goes by the decision signal “Stalin,” enlisted within the Navy in 2007 and started her profession as an aviation electronics technician, in response to a Navy biography. She was later chosen by the service’s enlisted commissioning program, Seaman-to-Admiral (STA-21), and have become an officer in 2013 after receiving a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry at Outdated Dominion College. She was designated a naval aviator in April 2016.
The Blue Angels have been fashioned in 1946 by then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Chester Nimitz “with a purpose to elevate the general public’s curiosity in naval aviation and enhance Navy morale,” in response to the group’s web site. Since that point, the unit has flown a wide range of planes; it moved to the Tremendous Hornets in 2021.
Now, almost 50 years after ladies first flew jets for the Navy, the service’s most public and visual squadron has welcomed a girl into its jet pilot ranks, although it famous in its announcement that “lots of of girls representing the Navy and Marine Corps have served with the Blue Angels over the last 55 years.”
The primary feminine aviator to qualify on tactical jets was Capt. Rosemary Mariner in 1974. Although restricted to coaching and different non-combat roles till 1993, feminine naval aviators have gone on to attain different important firsts. Mariner herself could be one of many first ladies to serve aboard a Navy warship, in addition to the primary feminine pilot to command an operational squadron. Extra just lately, Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, additionally a Navy pilot, turned the primary feminine govt officer of an plane service in 2017 and, in 2021, the primary feminine commander of one of many Navy’s largest warships.
Lee was one of many pilots who participated within the first all-female flyover in Mariner’s honor when the pioneering pilot died in 2019.
The Blue Angels’ first feminine pilot was Marine Maj. Katie Prepare dinner, who joined the squadron in 2015 to fly the KC-130 Hercules logistics plane affectionately referred to as “Fats Albert.”
— Konstantin Toropin might be reached at konstantin.toropin@army.com. Comply with him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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