AF Academy

[Anonymous]

When talking to a friend of my father's the other day, the topic of my aspiration to attend the Air Force Academy came up. Thisfriend says, and is a trusted source of information, that the best thing I could do at this point would be to find another female that had attended and start a correspondance, as a way to become aquanted (sp?) with the way the life for a woman is there. So, I am lookingfor someone who attended the Academy to talk to. Also, THere was an article ran a few weeks ago in my local newspaper about female pilots in the Air Force.One section particularly caught my attention. A carrierpilot was talking about a female (I hate having to pointthat out every two seconds... but..) friend of her thatwas a fighter pilot (my chosen carreer). She had recieved a Christmas Card from this particular friend stating her depression, esp. the fact that she could get none of her squadron colleagues to speak to her.Is the situation that bad for women in the fighter command? I know it is unusual for a woman to be a combat pilot, but I have a hard time visualizing that we (as in Americans) could be that bigoted. And it also raises questions as to how effective our ArmedForces could be if this is a normal fact of life.Could someone please help me here?



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rebpilot@yahoo.com

[Anonymous]

Hi.**I have not gone to the academy, but that is part of my plans for the future.**I am also going to be a fighter pilot.**I was wondering if you could email me that article from your newspaper if possible.**I try to keep everything I can about female pilots.**My email address is psliman@plix.com**Thank you, M. Sliman



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psliman@plix.com

[Anonymous]

Wow. Although I am neither an AFA graduate nor a fighter pilot, I have been in the aviation business for 15 years.**It constantly amazes me the inaccurate perceptions folks have about women in the services.**I have determined that 99 percent of these ficticious comments do indeed come from folks that have never served a day in our Air Force.**To set the record straight, it is NOT unusual for a women to be a fighter pilot.**There's just not a lot of women applying--it NOT that there's a barrier they can't overcome.**Regarding the depressed pilot that couldn't get any of her squadron mates to accept her:**what has she done (or not done) to earn the respect of her colleages?**Does she display a 'holier than thou' attitude because she's a women?**If you want to be treated like an equal, you must act like one.**And please, don't think that fighter commands are on a pedestal above the other flying commands--such as bombers, cargo, medical, surveillance, etc.**ALL flying commands are instrumental to our national defense; to be a pilot in any of the organizations (or even a crew member such as myself) is what makes our forces formidable.**To be a member in the Air Force, you MUST put the service before yourself.**diane



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dimills@msn.com