The lady is an Angel

[PHXPhlyer]

Navy’s famed Blue Angels aerial acrobatics team selects first female pilot
Lt. Amanda Lee is expected to report to the Blue Angels in the fall and will train with the squadron through the winter.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/navys-fame ... -rcna38695

For the first time in its 76-year history, the Navy’s famed Blue Angels aerial demonstration team will feature a female pilot.

The Navy on Monday named Lt. Amanda Lee as one of the Blue Angels’ newest core members.

Since 1946, the Blue Angels have performed dazzling aerial displays at air shows, sporting events and other flight demonstrations, providing community outreach and an important recruiting tool for the U.S. Navy.

Lee, of Mounds View, Minn., is now on a flight demonstration team, Strike Fighter Squadron 106, known as the Gladiators, stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va.

She’s expected to report to the Blue Angels in the fall and will train with the squadron through the winter. Her first event will likely be early next year, Navy said.

In 2019, Lee participated in the first all-female flyover as part of the funeral service for Rosemary Mariner, a retired captain who was one of the Navy’s first female pilots and the first woman to command a naval aviation squadron.

“When I come into the ready room right now, I’m a pilot first, a person second, and my gender really isn’t an issue,” Lee said in an interview released by the Navy at the time. “It’s people like Capt. Mariner that have paved that way for us, so it’s really a huge honor. I’m super humbled to be a part of this flyover in her honor.”

There are 17 officers serving with the Blue Angels, according to their website. Each is typically on the team for two years. The current team already includes three women — a public affairs officer, a flight surgeon and an events coordinator.

Navy and Marine Corps pilots who have a minimum of 1,250 tactical jet flight hours and who are aircraft-carrier qualified are eligible for one of the extremely competitive and highly sought-after positions. The team currently flies F/A-18 Super Hornet jets.

PP

[Ex-Ascot]

Good for her. Hope she does better than our first lady Red Arrow. She doesn't look like a wimp.

[Rossian]

Is your implication that our first Red Arrow lady is/was a wimp? If so I think that is a bit harsh.

The Ancient Mariner

[Boac]

Luke 23:34?

[Undried Plum]

When I worked for USN SupSalv's civilian contractor one of our jobs was to recover the body of USN's first female fighter pilot.

She'd flamed out the inboard engine of her F-14 by going to high alpha with yaw on a tight turn onto finals. It was a well known characteristic of that type (the aircraft, not the gender) and she'd been trained to avoid that situation. At the time there had been a lot of pressure on the navy to get a femme into a fast jet and the general feeling amongst the F-14 crews of the day was that she'd been pushed just too far. and too quickly.

I'm trying to remember her name. Karen Hulgren?

Her RIO survived his ejection.

I'm sure the USN learned their lesson years before this lady became an Angel.