Women Win Their Wings
When the Navy selected the first eight women for training as naval aviators in 1973, more than four decades had passed since Amelia Earhart had successfully become the first woman and second person after Charles Lindbergh to complete a non-stop solo flight across the Atantlic Ocean. Women in the cockit represented a sea change for naval aviation, yet for those selected, the rigorous Navy flight training program represented a personal challenge like it did for their male counterparts. As Ensign Jane Skiles commented to a reporter from her hometown newspaper, ” Learning to fly has been one of my ambitions…I know the training will be very demanding, but like anything worth doing, I’ll have to work for it…When I win my wings I want to feel that they mean the same thing pinned on me as they would on any man who had undergone the same training.” Of the first eight chosen, six successfully completed the program, those that have followed them expanding the horizons for women in naval aviation, including flying combat missions around the world from land and sea.
