Rosemary Bryant Mariner joined the Naval service after being selected as one of the first eight women to enter military pilot training. Designated a naval Aviator in June 1974, she became the first female military aviator to fly tactical jet aircraft, the A-4E/L Skyhawk, in 1975. The following year Mariner converted to the A-7E Corsair II, again becoming the first woman to fly a front-line light attack aircraft. She was the first military woman to command an operational aviation squadron and was selected for major aviation shore command. During DESERT STORM, she commanded Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Thirty Four. During her twenty-four years of military service, Capt. Mariner logged over 3500 military flight hours in fifteen different naval aircraft and made seventeen carrier landings. In 1997, Mariner retired as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Professor of Military Studies for the National War College. Several books and publications have profiled her life, including Crossed Currents: Navy Women from WWI to Tailhook, Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution, Tailspin, Ground Zero: The Gender Wars in the Military, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal.She's guestblogging over at The Volokh Conspiracy.
I may have a new hero.
3 comments:
Also may I recommend Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (one of my personal heroes)also recognized as the "Mother of Computing" and the "Admiral of the Cyber Seas". She was married to her craft, early computing, and was credited with introducing the word "bug" to the world of computing (although the word had been in usage before she more broadly popularized it).
Think about the personal ability it took to be promoted to Rear Admiral in the chauvinistic Navy before the rise of Women's Lib, strictly on her own merits!
What a gal!
DeDog
Another familiar name, and confirmation of your comments that the Intarw3b is people.
In mid-1974, I was a wet-behind-the- ears-but-never-the-less-salty Second Class Petty Officer in Attack Squadron Forty-Two at NAS Oceana. I remember my shop supervisor coming in and commenting that there was a woman pilot checking in at one of the neighboring squadrons.
Being the MCP I was at the time, I wondered aloud "WELL! Wonder how long she's gonna last?"
She lasted long enough to administer my last re-enlistment oath, in VAQ-34.
CDR (at the time) Mariner stands out as one of the best commanding officers I served under during my career.
But she was not the only celebrity to come out of that squadron. There was one LTJG Lisa Caputo, who we now know as CAPT Lisa Nowak.
Jackie Cochran.
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