A Living Hero: First United States Air Force Combat Pilot Jeannie Flynn Leavitt
When a young Jeannie Flynn Leavitt found the courage to ask what may seem to many today a simple question – if she can fly a combat aircraft? – shortly after she became the first woman in the United States Air Force to lead a new generation of pilots, enrolled in a universal mission of peace, cultural diversity, technological and social advancement. In 1993 Leavitt became the first female fighter pilot and was the first woman to command a USAF combat fighter wing.
As one of the keynote speakers during the NBAA-BACE 2019 in Las Vegas, her legendary status stood out on stage. While decades younger, one might call her the Jane (Goodall) of the aviation industry with a relentless spirit and character of steel. Certainly, if Hollywood needed a new superhero character, General Leavitt would be its “diamond in the shadow.”
Interviewed by USAF General Lloyd “Fig” Newton, the first African American to fly for the Thunderbirds and NBAA’s current chair, Leavitt and Newton shared unique beginnings, the natural dissolving of gender & cultural boundaries and the importance of new open-minded leaders. Reflecting on the obstacles she has encountered and the heights to which she has soared, Leavitt added that if those who follow on the same path meet less resistance, she doesn’t mind being called a trailblazer. In her own words, this is how Major General Leavitt’s journey began.
“The vast majority of people said don’t even thinking about asking for that fighter because you will be labeled as a troublemaker and you will ruin your career. What ended up happening is I went to them and I said, ‘I have to ask. I know the answer is going to be no but I also know it’s going to change at some point, and I don’t want to have a regret’ saying I always wanted to fly a fighter, and have people say, well did you even ask?
I said, ‘I have to ask, even knowing the answer will be no.’
Every location I would go to it was new and different. I was the first woman they had in the squadron. It was hard at first because people are a little skeptical. But as all pilots tend to do, they would call back and ask, ‘how is she?’” They would reply: ‘I didn’t really want her to be here but she’s a good pilot and good officer. It got a little easier with each assignment because I put a lot of pressure on myself to be as good or better than any of my male counterparts. I knew everyone was watching me.
One thing that helped a lot it was going through Weapons School. It was definitely the hardest 6 months of my life. But when you graduate from that institution and you come back as a weapons officer and squadron you have huge amount of credibility and a lot of respect walking in, having been a graduate of that school.
We want a force that represents that country that we represent. We want to look like society. It’s interesting because people normally think gender, race and things like that. We have additional factors, like geography. We want to be geographically representative of the country we are protecting. It’s really about getting to that diversity of thought and I have seen it time and again.
When people are with me and looking at a problem, and if they all think like I do, we get to a solution really fast. But it’s not that much different if I thought about it myself. If people come with different perspectives, you get to a better solution. You thought of it from a different point of view.
Just about all my time is in the F-15E Strike Eagle. I am a little partial to that airplane. What is amazing I was flying it last summer and even though the tail numbers were the same, the airplane was so vastly different then when I first started flying it. Believe it or not, I didn’t not have GPS when I first started flying it. By the time I left all the airplanes could talk to each other, you have a helmet that can cue all your sensors, the need radar, phenomenal! It’s incredible. That’s not even to mention the 5th gen., the F-22 and F-35 are incredibly capable aircraft.
We (the USAF) work really hard on the engagement piece. There is a lack of familiarity in our society with the military in general. Without knowing someone who is in the military your sources of data are typically the media and Hollywood. Media tends to cover a lot of bad news stories which gives a lot of attention but doesn’t paint a fair picture of the military. Hollywood can choose, because it’s the entertainment industry. I highly do appreciate when they do want to be accurate. In fact, we had a recent situation with Captain Marvel where they wanted to come out and shadow. They wanted to talk to a female fighter pilot who was flying fighters when there weren’t a lot of women. We hosted initially the two directors and then it was great conversation, they were really excited and said we want to come back and bring the lead actress, Brie Larson. She came out, we hosted her for a few days and put her in a back seat of a F-16 so she could feel first-hand the high performance.
One of the things that came out of that is [also] increasing the rate of diversity because we want more women and minorities as pilots.
It’s an incredible team to be part of. I am honored to be part of our Air Force.”
Photography Credits by DIAMONDS MIRROR Photographer Kashea Kloss
