| | | quote | Originally posted by Ken Wittlief:
I dont think any service has ANY female pilots on fighter jets. I know the Navy tried to push one women through, so she could be the first to land a fighter jet on a carrier. The first time she tried to do so, they had to wave her off three times. On her 4th attempt she crashed into the stern of the carrier and died. I heard the Navy put their 'female fighter jet' program on hold after that -the general opinion after this was that she was rushed through the training and simply wasnt ready to land on a real carrier. They might have female pilots on other aircraft, but I think they still dont have any on F14s or F18s |
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Don't know where you're getting your information but it's wrong. According to the Navy's website, "There are no restrictions on women in aviation." The only billets closed to women are submarines, those dealing with SEALS and Marine Corps support; currently 264 female navy pilots. Yeah, Kara Hultgreen crashed while trying to carrier qual in her F-14 and she probably would have been sent back to retrain or washed out had she been a man with the same passes, but you can thank pressure from Pat Schroeder for that. I had female student naval aviatiors when I was an advanced strike instructor at NAS Kingsville, TX and just like the male SNA's some were good and some not. I'm sure there are female pilots out there who could kick my butt in air combat, and one pilot I went through training with has flown two space shuttle missions as pilot(Sue Still.) They are plenty capable of flying the plane, I think the real problem comes when they get shot down or eject due to a mechanical and wind up in the hands of hostiles. I think most guys get squeamish at the thought of U.S. military women being tortured/raped/etc.
