All-female -135 crew

[Techsan]

All-female -135 crew

3/18/2008 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An all-female crew of three women deployed to Southwest Asia flew an in-flight refueling mission together in a KC-135 Stratotanker in honor of National Women's History Month March 18 over Iraq.

Maj. Leslie Picht, the aircraft commander; 1st Lt. Cindy Dawson, the co-pilot; and Senior Airman Killian Lange, the boom operator refueled an A-6 and two Navy F-18 Hornets supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

They are all deployed to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron in Southwest Asia.

Maj. Adrian Byers, the 340th EARS director of operations, said he enjoys scheduling crew members to fly together in conjunction with heritage months because it reminds the unit -- and, hopefully, the world -- of the progress that's been made by the people who came before us.

"I have noticed a change in operations for women in theater," Major Picht said. "Five years ago, when I was a co-pilot deployed to Saudia Arabia, female pilots or boom operators sometimes could not get controllers to acknowledge them on the radios. I would intentionally lower my voice for radio calls to prevent any problems. All-female crews were intentionally avoided to prevent problems with support for diverting aircraft. These things have definitely changed in the last few years. It's nice to see our progress in racial and gender equality is not just a national progression, but we are now changing the norms internationally by our presence."

Perhaps proof of that change, the two more junior-ranking women said their experiences as female pilots haven't been difficult or fraught with gender-based obstacles to overcome. The military has come a long way since the 1950s when women were taught how to wear makeup in boot camp.

And the fact that they're female fliers isn't too surprising to most people today either.

"Most people, especially civilians, assume when you say 'Air Force' that you fly planes anyway, so it's not really shocking to them," Airman Lange said. This is her third deployment in the three years she's served. "I never thought I'd be in the military, but once I became interested in joining, I knew I wanted to do a flying job."

She said she doesn't really think of what she does as "something amazing" until she sees Air Force recruiting commercials and talks to her friends and family about her job. Then, "getting other people's input makes me realize how cool it is."

Sounds like 4 empty kitchens to me! Kidding, of course. Seriously though, Saudi controllers treat everyone that way...not just because you are a female.

[Guest xtndr50boom]

"The military has come a long way since the 1950s when women were taught how to wear makeup in boot camp."

Too bad they can't bring that one back. ALOT of AF chicks need to learn that makeup can't hide cold sores

[Hansel]

Been a while since I have been to the AOR, so is it standard at most of the bases to not sanitize your bags or any of that fun stuff anymore?

And that's great about the 3 girls getting to fly together...

[Guest MizzouNav]

"3 chicks 1 plane"............

If it's not funny, you got no sense of humor.

[Guest mjk5401]

"3 chicks 1 plane"............

If it's not funny, you got no sense of humor.

LOL....Wow, too funny. I tried getting one of the three (not mentioning any names) to watch 2girls 1cup, but she wouldn't. I flew with her right before she headed over. She has good hands (so to speak...I don't want to piss her husband off).

[Steve Davies]

the boom operator refueled an A-6 and two Navy F-18 Hornets supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom

Oh dear.

[Toro]

"Five years ago, when I was a co-pilot deployed to Saudia Arabia, female pilots or boom operators sometimes could not get controllers to acknowledge them on the radios. I would intentionally lower my voice for radio calls to prevent any problems. All-female crews were intentionally avoided to prevent problems with support for diverting aircraft."

F*** that. Saudi pilots still don't like taking orders from female controllers. If some douchebag can't handle a female telling him to call precontact, I say let the f***er flame out and see how much Allah will help him.

[Bergman]

Hey fellas...I refueled a C-17 out here in PACOM land tonight, WITH AN ALL-MALE CREW!.

Big Fucking Deal.

You're either good at your job or you're not. Beyond that, no one cares. I wish PA would get that through their skulls.

[M2]

F*** that. Saudi pilots still don't like taking orders from female controllers. If some douchebag can't handle a female telling him to call precontact, I say let the f***er flame out and see how much Allah will help him.

Stupid fuckers would probably do it too! الله أكبر

Cheers! M2

[M2]

All-female -135 crew

Sounds like 4 empty kitchens to me! Kidding, of course. Seriously though, Saudi controllers treat everyone that way...not just because you are a female.

One, that link's fucked...I wonder if SAF/PA realized how stupid the report was and yanked it (gotta include a 'STS' on that!).

Two, this article was completely useless without pics anyway! At least we got to see what the all-female Herk crew looked like. I remember one was kinda hot, in a 'Heidi of the Himalayas' sort of way. Anyone still got a link to that pic?

Cheers! M2

[HercDude]

Here is the damn pic. Now can we please not rehash this f-ing ready-made-for-PA horseshit.

[Guest Bender]

No story, no pics, no nothing...

I work with one of the girls on that Herk crew. I know, but never once has the topic ever come up.

THAT is how important it is.

Berg? You passed gas on an all male crew? Again? If I had a dollar...

BENDY

EDIT: I did read the article earlier today though (before it got retracted apparently) and M2 is dead on...awful article. Boring, no pics (except the back of the pilot's head) and a little lacking on reasons why it should even be there.

I mean, f_ck...how many chicks does it take to fly a 135 anyways?

[Guest Boom]

The AC is scary as to fly with and only has like 1,500 total time flying. She's the one who will tell the copilot he's high/low of the glidslope while he's flying a localizer approach

I work with one of the girls on that Herk crew.

The FE? I remember being at Ali Al Salem when that all female Herk crew was there. People didn't know was the bigger bitch, the AC or the FE.

[Coasta]

Ugh! When will this shit die? I remember a certain female AC (noob at the time) at McChord that approached me with her idea of an all female crew. I didn't care that she wanted to turn the cockpit into a box office until I looked at the individuals she wanted on her crew--2 new copilots, a shiny new LM and a completely inept LM. I ran the Wing's prescribed ORM sheet then laughed in her face. She got all hot (STS) under the collar, and I told her to take it to the DO or CC. The CC plainly asked, "What did Coasta say?" and left it at that. Personally I would have liked her to take it to the top of the ORM chain so everyone could have had a laugh from the AMC A3 on down.

On a side note, when is regular average white guy month? I'm not a regular average white guy, but your contributions to society seem to get overlooked.

[Guest MizzouNav]

If you haven't seen this, heres a song about a average white guy:

Edited March 19, 2008 by MizzouNav

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

I agree that this is absurd. I see it time and time again that someone gets the "good" deal or whatever because they sqaut to pee. They were toying with the idea of an all female BUFF combat crew when I was on Diego a while back. That got nipped in the bud for whatever reason. The majority of the crew was sierra hotel but the Co was a pain in th a$$.

Fast forward to 2008 and the Co is now a AC working her fini flight. Guess what she wanted? So they flew it and got ZERO recognition. It was pretty awesome! BFD you did your jobs and you all happened to be female. Still don't know how it slipped through the cracks but I am glad it was a "fini" flight. Totally undependable and DNIF all the time, but she still wanted flight scheds to work wonders for her.

Just my .02 Oh yeah here's a balnket "STS" for wherever it needs...

[HerkDerka]

Wow, an all-female crew. That's definitely never happened before. When is PA going to stop acting like this is news?

HD

[FalconXtreme]

where was the all black aircrew for black history month?

[DigDug]

where was the all black aircrew for black history month?

.69 seconds on google:

https://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123024730

[MD]

The AC is scary as ###### to fly with and only has like 1,500 total time flying. She's the one who will tell the copilot he's high/low of the glidslope while he's flying a localizer approach

She probably flies the backcourse PAR well.........

[sky_king]

.69 seconds on google:

https://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123024730

Anyone of Norwegian descent want to make history and fly with me on Leif Erikson Day?

[Guest JT]

Maybe PA doesn't realize we have a woman(I think) and a black man running for President. Anything below that shouldn't be a big deal. I can't stand the media with "The first ______ to do ________!" I guess being an AMERICAN doesn't mean anything anymore.

[yerfer]

Oh yes, the female pilot scene. Reminds me of a time back at the air show over here at Luke.

At the time my girlfriend was interested in being a pilot for the AF and noticed a female pilot (F117/Viper) walking around. So she thought, I'll go talk to her and see what it was like as a women going for a pilot slot.

Let me back track. Earlier that day while I was by myself I spoke with this woman and she wasn't to friendly about talking pilot details (at the time I was just starting the rotc route and had some questions). I eventually got the red flag that she didn't care much for conversation and so I bailed.

Back to my gf wanting to chat with said woman. We both walk up to her again and my gf introduces herself and says, Hey I'm interested in getting a pilot slot through ROTC. What can you tell me about it?

So this lady lifts her eye brows in sheer excitement and turns to me and gives me a dirty look, like bug off. She pulls my girlfriend off to the side for a half an hour and lowers her voice the whole time so I can't hear a dang thing. WTFO?

Turns out, she gave my girlfriend her personal cell phone #, e-mail address, and account information to an "all girl online pilot forum" so they can stay in touch as 'girls'.

Ridiculous.

[Guest MizzouNav]

how about an all black all female crew? Have they done that yet?

Or they need to make a crew that represents one of those pictures in middle school textbooks: a white girl, and asian, a black kid and a hispanic person in a wheelchair, that would be a PA's dream come true!

Pretend the towel is asian:

[Scooter14]

Any other goombahs out there wanna go fly a tanker Soprano-style?

Yeah, that's right...how you doin', huh?