2006 Thunderbirds team includes first female pilot

Air Force Link ^ | 16 June 2005 | From ACC via Air Force Link

[Gunrunner2]

I think not.

Bye.

[Gunrunner2]

>>As long as she dissent paint it pink and start selling mary kay out of the weapons bay who cares<,

Thing is, there was a woman (Jackie Parker) in my OTS class that was well connected politically, educated, worked for NASA. She came to the USAF to learn to fly. She was featured on that old TV show, "Kids are People too."

She also was arrogant and nasty and played the political game blatantly and with no regard for the mission.

Anyway, she made no secret to everyone that she was going to go back to NASA and fly the shuttle.

She went to pilot training and eventually went to the Guard to fly F-16's. She was profiled in Air Force Magazine and was pictured carrying her pink flight pubs bag to the aircraft. (http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/1995/articles/apr_95/apr2a_95.html) She viewed the pink bag as a joke. The guys did not--contrary to what she says.

She had issues and eventually sued the Guard over her training failures:

"Parker] was still a little pale-looking to me and I was ...upset about it too....I’m starting to think about what could have happened....[M]y problem with this protracted re-flying schedule was that I thought that someday she was [going to] hit the ground and [we would] be in an investigation on the other side of the coin saying, ‘How could you let her fly 50 rides in an 8 ride program knowing that she was never developing the skills to tactically employ the airplane? How could you let her kill herself?"

She sued (of course) and things got nasty, with the Boys from Syracuse turning in their medal to the White House )http://216.247.220.66/archives/feminism/syracuse.htm):

"Maj. Parker had another side, one that shocked the gnarliest of fighter jocks. The investigations found that during her year at the 174th, she flaunted an affair with the director of operations, Col. Robert Rose, who was married, and that she continually grabbed a male officer's private parts because it "drove him totally nuts." She was reported to have had other "relationships with superior officers" at previous postings, one investigatory report said.

Her calling card, the reports said, announced her as "Mankiller." Once, perhaps in jest, she offered oral sex to a pilot by announcing it into the air hose attached to his G-suit, the military investigatory report said. She occasionally used the men's restroom and walked in on male pilots in the showers.

Documents from the investigation said Maj. Parker "was very headstrong and used her sexuality to try to influence those around her." Her peers told investigators she was just obnoxious; one called her "an accident waiting to happen."

After failing her final check ride, Maj. Parker called in sick—often with what she described as "female troubles"—during the three additional tests subsequently offered to her. In total, her F-16 training took three times longer than normal, as the unit tried to ease her along. "


She was an awful pilot and an even more awful person.

The Air Force that their version of Hultgreen. . .only this one didn't die.

[MarkL]

Sorry, training women for flying combat aircraft is wrong. So far we have held the line on women in combat. If she can't fly in combat why is she flying an F-16? Actually there are very few instances where a USAF might not fly in combat, even if in a C-5. Sometimes combat comes out and finds you.

Is this true? I thought that I've read reports that women are flying combat missions in A-10s in Iraq. Maybe I was wrong, but I don't think so.

Mark

[ProudVet77]

No, I was wrong.
I don't follow air force stuff much, and since we are still debating women in combat a made a huge leap of logic, and came up wrong.

[chariotdriver]

Looks to me like you've already played a liberal game and they beat you.
Don't let them manipulate you or get into your head like that. Don't let them control you. In fact don't let any group do that.
I'll include the definitions of gender and sex below for you. I promise these are the real thing and not a made up definition. I'm on the same side as you. But after that I don't have any more time for this with you

gen·der (jndr) n.
1. The sex of an individual, male or female, based on reproductive anatomy.
2. Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture.
3.
a. The condition of being female or male; sex.
b. Females or males considered as a group: expressions used by one gender.

sex. n.
1. The property or quality by which organisms are classified as female or male on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions.
2. Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, of this classification.
2. Females or males considered as a group.
3. The condition or character of being female or male; the physiological, functional, and psychological differences that distinguish the female and the male. See Usage Note at gender.
4. The sexual urge or instinct as it manifests itself in behavior.
5. Sex act.
6. The genitals.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gender
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sex

[Gunrunner2]

Riiighhhttt. . .and you describe yourself as "gay" when feeling happy.

[Dashing Dasher]

I guess that women will be paying the price for this for years to come.

I'm a DAMN GOOD pilot and I resent many of your derogatory comments against female pilots.

Generalizations will always get you into trouble.

[Gunrunner2]

>>I guess that women will be paying the price for this for years to come. <<

Indeed. . .she is making it hard for ALL female pilots by her behavior. Hint: she is not the only one that gets a pass and leverages her sex. Jennie Flynn is one as well. Cried during de-briefs. . .give me a break. . .when she was on the way to Seymour-Johnson all aircrew were called into the main briefing room and TOLD she was going to upgrade on time, she was to become an instructor on-time. . .basically, she wasn't going to fail.

>>I'm a DAMN GOOD pilot<<

I'm sure you are.

>>and I resent many of your derogatory comments against female pilots.<<

Okay, in this thread. . .what comments? It is the politics of the process I object to (as well as females in combat). By your emotional rant I see you are unsuitable for the fighter world.

>>Generalizations will always get you into trouble.<<

So will politics, favoritism, social agendas. . .these will not only get you in trouble, they can get you killed in the flying world. . .or didn't you know that?

Have a nice day.

[Dashing Dasher]

By your emotional rant I see you are unsuitable for the fighter world.

LOL!!!

[X-USAF]

I second your motion. Naval Aviators have always been held in much higher esteem by me than my fellow zoomies. Hell, they land them things on postage stamps. That alone won me over.

[KeyLargo]

Yahoo! News

World AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/
First Saudi woman pilot to fly as driving debate rages on

Sun Jul 10, 6:12 PM ET

While the debate over whether Saudi women should be allowed to drive rages on, Captain Hanadi Hindi will soon become the first woman to fly a plane with the private fleet of a prince.

Hindi, 27, is preparing to take to the skies at a time when supporters and opponents of lifting the ban on women's driving in the conservative kingdom are still fighting it out in the local press.

"I never meant to be a pioneer. When I started learning to become a pilot, I did so for my father, who himself had aspired to be a pilot. I then got attached to flying," Hindi said by telephone from her home in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Prince Al-Walid bin Talal's decision to make Hindi part of his private crew has drawn criticism from some conservative Muslim scholars, who object to any easing of constraints that bar Saudi women from mixing with men other than relatives or traveling without the authorization of a male guardian.

But Hindi said the billionaire entrepreneur's Kingdom Holding Company had also hired her father, Zakariya Hindi, as a legal consultant.

He will accompany her on all her trips "so that no one will say that I am traveling without a male relative."

Hindi said she is heading to London in about three weeks for a three-month training course before she takes up her job as a pilot for Prince Al-Walid.

Kingdom Holding hired Hindi even before she clinched her Commercial Pilot's Licence and an Instrument Rating (CPL and IR) from the Mideast Aviation Academy in Jordan last month.

The company, which runs a worldwide business empire, had offered Hindi a scholarship to carry her through her last year at the Jordanian academy, and Prince Al-Walid took out doublespread advertisements in the press to congratulate her on taking her CPL.

"I thank God that Prince Al-Walid has given me the opportunity to serve my country and serve his highness, bearing in mind that he is a member of the royal family," Hindi said.

Hindi said that before the prince offered her a 10-year contract, she feared she might not find a job in Saudi Arabia.

Her apprehensions were well-grounded, given that women in the Muslim country are still excluded from many professions that would appear less controversial than piloting a plane and are the only women in the world banned from driving a car.

The appointed Shura (consultative) Council in May shelved the suggestion of Mohammad Al Zalfa, who cited a host of economic reasons to end the ban, such as the fact that the prohibition has led to the presence of around a million foreign drivers who cost the country 12 billion riyals (3.2 billion dollars) a year.

Advocates of an end to the ban also cite the prohibitive cost of hiring drivers for families of limited means.

They also defend their case on social grounds to counter the religious-based arguments of opponents, pointing out that by having to rely on drivers, Saudi women end up spending much time alone with male strangers.

Hindi said she was "not against" allowing women to drive because some women either cannot afford to employ drivers, which forces them to rely on public transport, or have no able-bodied men in their families to take them around.

It would be good if women could get behind the wheel "with certain restrictions," such as granting that right only to women of middle age or more, she said.

But despite having blazed a trail by becoming the first Saudi woman pilot, Hindi diplomatically shifted the issue away from ideological grounds.

Being a pioneer "is a very big responsibility... I hope I will be a good example for Saudi women," she said.

[KeyLargo]

free Military Insider Newsletter
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - The fourth woman to be a U.S. Coast Guard pilot has taken command of the Aviation Technical Training Center at the Coast Guard Support Center in Elizabeth City.

Capt. Gail A. Donnelly, 47, assumed command Friday. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native and mother of two children succeeded former training center commander Capt. Daniel A. Cutter, who retired after 31 years of service.

Donnelly, the first woman to be assigned to the post, will oversee approximately 700 enlisted students who attend the training course each year. The training center provides technicians for Coast Guard air stations throughout the United States.

Her career has been filled with firsts. She was the first woman commander of Coast Guard Air Station Savannah, Ga., and was the first female pilot to fly an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter to the Arctic.

She was the Coast Guard's fourth female pilot when she graduated from training in 1982. She also served aboard the cutter Polar Star, an ice breaker that deploys to the Arctic and Antarctic. Before coming to North Carolina, she was the Coast Guard's chief of search and rescue in Seattle, Wash.