Vernice Armour, 38, is America's first African American female combat pilot and a former captain with the U.S. Marines. She served two tours in Iraq, earning an Air Medal with a star for valor and 13 Strike Flight awards, a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, a Navy Presidential Unit Citation and other awards. She flew an AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter. She will be the keynote speaker at the Promoting Our Women Warriors Of Wyoming event on May 19 in Casper. The Casper Star-Tribune recently caught up with her by telephone from her home in Stafford, Va. Casper Star Tribune: Where did you grow up? Armour: She was born in Chicago, but lived in California until she was in the fourth grade, where she learned to love and ride horses. Her family then moved to Memphis, Tenn. "California has always been a special place for me," she said. "I'd go out all day with my friends and just discover. We were looking for places that people hadn't been yet. I still remember that feeling of adventure and discovery. And I think it has definitely had a huge part to do with my sense of spirit and adventure and discovery and creating those breakthroughs now as an adult. There are still so many places and so many things in our lives that we have yet to do. That sheer childlike excitement of doing it is alive and well." CST: Did you always want to fly? Armour: "I did not. I wanted to be a police officer that rode a horse downtown -- mounted patrol," she said. She attended Middle Tennessee State University on student loans and Pell Grants, joining the women's ROTC rifle team to earn a free trip to Mardi Gras. She figured the military would be a great foundation for her police career and joined the Army Reserves. "The next year, I was doing ROTC training, leadership school. It was career day and I saw a black woman in a flight suit. I said, ‘Wow. That is cool,'" she said. "I still went on to become a police officer. And I rode a steel horse downtown. But I never forgot about that woman in that flight suit. "So after a couple of years on the force, I didn't want any what ifs. I said, 'I could always be a cop. I won't always have the opportunity to be a combat pilot.'" At 25, she left the Tempe, Ariz., Police Department and joined the Marines. She went from cop to combat pilot in three years. CST: What was it like to be the only woman in your flight classes? Armour: In 1991, Congress repealed the law that banned women from flying combat, and in 1993, the Marine Corps opened pilot positions to women. In 1999, when Armour was training, she was the only woman in her classes. "I have three brothers. I played the trombone section. I was in the Army (Reserve). I was a motorcycle cop. You know, everywhere I went I was pretty much one of the only women. To me it wasn't any different than just being in another place where I just had to make sure I pulled my weight and did the best that I could do," she said. "I like doing things that excite me and that I feel are adventurous and fun. The things that I felt were adventurous and fun just happened to not have a whole lot of women doing them. Blazing the trail became a byproduct of me just wanting to live an adventurous, juicy, breakthrough life." CST: What do you hope women veterans take from your talk in Casper? Armour: "That they can have the juicy, exciting, adventurous life -- full of meaning and fulfillment -- that they've always dreamed of. And they can accomplish it with bravery, courage and power.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Bob Hoover headlines Lindbergh Foundation’s anniversary celebration
The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation confirmed today that legendary airshow performer and test pilot Bob Hoover will join speakers Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Gene Cernan for the foundation’s 35th anniversary gala at The Explorers Club on May 18. In addition, author Reeve Lindbergh, youngest daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, will also participate in the program.
“I am certain everyone in attendance will be delighted to hear the captivating stories of how famed test pilot Bob Hoover, as a young man, met Charles Lindbergh and engaged with him throughout their careers in aviation,” said Lindbergh Foundation Chairman and CEO Larry Williams. “Reeve Lindbergh will add her own personal recollections to the evening, including the importance of the Lindbergh Foundation’s work in carrying on the vision of her parents. I can’t think of a more compelling roster of speakers to help us celebrate our anniversary, and to encourage us to remember the significance of the contributions made by the Lindberghs to our lives today, 85 years after that historic flight.”
Bob Hoover has flown over 300 types of aircraft and flight tested or flown nearly every type of fighter aircraft, and is also the holder of several aviation records. He has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Soldiers Medal, Air Medal and Purple Heart. He is the only person to serve two terms as president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and was captain of the United States Aerobatic Team in the 1966 International Competition in Moscow.
“Bob Hoover has been a hero and mentor to me as well as the entire airshow industry for decades, saving countless lives,” noted Lindbergh Foundation Board member Sean Tucker. “He is a true aviation legend and is very honored to share the stage with these famous Apollo astronauts to celebrate the legacy of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.”
Reeve Lindbergh is the honorary chairman of the Lindbergh Foundation and the youngest of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s children. Since 2004, she has been recognized as Honorary Chairman of the Lindbergh Foundation following her years as its president, and as a member of the board of directors since the foundation’s formation in 1977. In this work, she leads efforts to further her parents’ vision for improving the quality of life through balance between nature and technology. Reeve is the author of numerous books for children and adults. Her other volunteer activities include various community organizations concerned with children, the arts, and support for handicapped individuals.
Lindbergh Foundation board and staff are continuing preparations to welcome astronauts Jim Lovell, Eugene Cernan, and Neil Armstrong to The Explorers Club for the anniversary. Following a reception and dinner for about 100 guests, Lovell, who served on the foundation’s first board, will share his recollections of the vision for the foundation; Cernan will reflect on receiving the Lindbergh Spirit Award in 2007, and Armstrong will offer his perspective on the Lindbergh Foundation, and his recollections of working with Jimmy Doolittle, who served with him as national co-chair of the fundraising effort that endowed the Lindbergh Foundation.
The Lindbergh Foundation celebration continues on Saturday, May 19, with a special anniversary program at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, a supporter of the Lindbergh Foundation and home to a remarkable and unique collection of rare aviation and space exhibits. Following a panel discussion with some Lindbergh Foundation Board members, the Cradle will dedicate a plaque commemorating Lindbergh’s departure from nearby Roosevelt Field, with an anniversary cake noting the 85th anniversary of that flight, as well as the Cradle’s 10th birthday, and the 35th for the Lindbergh Foundation.
For more information: LindberghFoundation.org
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Aviation History: COD grad uses art to teach about Tuskegee Airmen
Jacqueline Withers was an art student at College of DuPage when a friend asked if she had ever thought of making the Tuskegee Airmen a theme of one of her exhibits. Unfamiliar with the history of America's first black military pilots, Withers rented a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen and went to the library to do more research.
She was stunned at their bravery, the obstacles they overcame to become fighter pilots during World War II, and the racism they still faced when they returned.
“It was a part of black history that was not taught,” Withers said. “I wondered, ‘How many people don't know this about these guys.'”
Withers decided to help change that by starting the Tuskegee Airmen Mural Project. Then living in Westmont, she called schools and asked to work with students to paint the history of the black Americans who graduated from Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. Two of those murals still hang in Westmont Junior High School and Downers Grove South High School.
Withers made it her personal goal to paint a Tuskegee Airmen mural in every state.
But she didn't stop with painting. Withers, who moved to Colorado in 2006, started the Take Flight Leadership Aviation/Bessie Coleman Fly Girl Chapter in Denver to encourage disadvantaged young people to follow their dreams, pursue careers in aviation and become leaders.
She recently brought five young women to Chicago to observe the 80th anniversary of the Bessie Coleman Flyover, honoring the first African-American woman to earn an international pilot's license. Coleman, who had moved to Chicago from Texas, died in a plane accident in 1926, but had dreamed of establishing an aviation school.
One of the young women who attended the flyover, Coraima Chavez, 16, said she wanted to fly for several years when she joined Take Flight Aviation Leadership last summer. Since then, she has attended ground school, gone up in the air with pilots and worked with others to help build a biplane.
She hopes to earn her pilot's license this summer.
“It has basically helped me think about my dream and how to achieve my dream to become a pilot,” she said. “It helped me become more confident in myself.”
Last fall, Chavez's essay on the Tuskegee Airmen made her one of the three winners in a national contest sponsored by Southwest Airlines. She said being involved in the flight program also has motivated her to get better grades.
“She (Withers) is the one who got me where I am today,” she said. Achieving dreams
Young people in the Take Flight Leadership Aviation/Bessie Coleman Fly Girl Chapter in Denver are required to maintain high grades and receive mentoring. They take training provided by the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles program and are eligible to test for a pilot's license at age 14.
“You can get your pilot's license before your driver's license,” Withers noted.
Participants as young as 9 may start in the program and pursue dreams other than becoming pilots, she said. She encourages them to become leaders and gives award for accomplishments such as serving as speakers at events. One won an EEA scholarship to attend aviation training in Oshkosh, Wis., this summer and a national Tuskegee Airmen art contest.
Withers estimates she has reached 25,000 young people through painting murals in schools and the Take Flight Aviation Leadership/Bessie Coleman Fly Girl Chapter.
“I've been able to reach the souls of children,” she said.
She received the National Youth Day 2010 Hero of the Year award from the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. for her work and has met some of the original Tuskegee Airmen,
“My whole life opened up,” Withers said. “You read about history, but (when you meet the airmen) you see history.”
Since graduating from COD, Withers has earned a bachelor's degree from the Art Institute of Colorado, a master's degree in management and is working on a doctorate in organizational leadership. She works as a freelance artist and motivational speaker.
Withers said she realized while attending an event in which she had a prominent role that she was no longer the girl in the background she had been while growing up in a family of 12 children in Chicago.
“I wish my dad were here to see that,” she said. “My dad was my biggest person who inspired me. (He said), ‘You can do anything you want to do if you apply yourself.'”
Teacher and mentor
Withers also has received continuing support from Jennifer Hereth, an art professor at COD who seeks to instill in her students a sense of social consciousness. Withers had done art work, but not painted until Hereth encouraged her to take up the brush.
“If she sees your potential, she helps you bring it out,” Withers said. “I never thought I would be painting walls, murals. I wouldn't have if it hadn't been for her.”
Hereth said she recognized that Withers was a highly motivated artist with a personal vision. She encouraged her to use her art to put out a message from her heart.
“I am in awe of where she has taken that social consciousness,” Hereth said. “She has taken that step many artists dream of.”
Hereth has been able to channel financial support for Withers' work with youth through IArtists, a group of Chicago area artists who encourage art and social change.
Withers said funding is always a challenge. So far, she has painted Tuskegee Airmen murals in six states.
“The problem is getting to every state,” she said.
One challenge Withers has not taken up is learning to fly herself.
“The kids always tease me, ‘Miss Jacqueline, when are you going to learn to fly?'” she said. “I haven't had time.”
Learn more about Jacqueline Withers and her Tuskegee Airmen murals at www.artinstitutes.edu/alumni-success/jacqueline-withers-freelance-artist-and-motivational-speaker-spirit-within-art-work-3119713.aspx and takeflightleadershipavation.blogspot.com/2011/08/eyes-in-sky-murals-by-jacqueline.html
Aviation News: Russian plane missing in Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- A Russian passenger airliner went missing Wednesday after it disappeared from radar screens over a mountainous region of Indonesia.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russia's newest civilian airliner, was carrying 42 passengers and eight Russian crew members, said Sunaryo, an official with Sukhoi's Indonesian agent, Trimarga Rekatama.
However, the number was in dispute. The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said only 37 of the 42 invited passengers were on board. Russian state-run news agencies reported 44 people were on the plane.
The plane was on its second demonstration flight Wednesday when it lost contact with air controllers at Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.
"The first demonstration flight in the morning went smoothly," said Sunaryo, who uses only one name. "There were no problems."
On the second flight, the plane began making its descent but vanished from radar screens at 6,200 feet in a mountainous area.
The plane lost contact with air traffic controllers at 2:12 p.m., 21 minutes after taking off, said Marsda Daryatmo, head of the search and rescue agency. Two helicopters were immediately sent out to search for the plane but had to return to their bases due to strong winds and unpredictable weather.
Ground teams were continuing to search. The air search will resume at daylight, depending on the weather, Daryatmo said.
The plane was flying over Mount Salak, a volcano south of Jakarta, and was presumed to have crashed.
The Sukhoi jet arrived in Jakarta as part of a demonstration tour of six Asian countries. It had been to Myanmar, Pakistan and Kazakhstan, and was due to visit Laos and Vietnam after Indonesia, said the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Sukhoi manufactures military aircraft and is known especially for its fighter jets. Its civilian aircraft is narrow-bodied with a dual-class cabin that can transport 100 passengers over regional routes. It flew its maiden flight in 2008.
In March, a Superjet 100 operated by Russia's Aeroflot Airlines was forced to abandon its flight to Astrakhan, Russia, and return to Moscow because of problems with the undercarriage, according to RIA Novosti.
A similar defect in another Aeroflot-operated Superjet 100 plane had to be fixed in Minsk in December.
Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corp. said the defect did not affect passenger safety.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The Thunderbirds Zoom into Town! (May 5th and 6th)
Sumter, SC (WLTX) -- There was rumbling over the skies of Sumter on Wednesday as Shaw Air Force Base prepares for the Shaw Air Expo this weekend.
You could hear the jets before you could see them as the Thunderbirds zoomed into town.
Since 1967 the Thunderbirds have been the official US Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron. Major Caroline Jensen is among the team.
"Every time I fly I still feel like I'm extremely lucky to do this," said Jensen.
The Thunderbirds travel all over the world representing the US Air Force.
"The flight panel has a flag of every country that the Thunderbirds have visited," explained Jensen as she pointed to a multitude of flags painted on the side of her jet. "Last year we had the honor of adding the flag of Finland to our flight panel."
"I remember the first time I got in an F-16," Jensen remembers, "it felt very small. It felt a little bit, like, claustrophobic and cramped in there. But once you start up the engine and start flying it, the airplane almost just disappears."
As a 1998 Air Force Academy graduate, Jensen has plenty of experience as a pilot. She has flown in Korea and has hundreds of combat hours over Iraq; however, many are still impressed to see a woman in her position.
"I am the 4th female pilot to fly for the team. The first female pilot came to the team in 2006. The squadron had their first woman Thunderbird though back in 1974. I'm still surprised when people are surprised to see me because obviously I've been doing it my whole career."
Although she understands that being a female pilot is inspiring to others.
"When I meet little girls I think it's great to see that spark in their eye! But it's just as important for me to see the little boys too so that the younger generation is aware that anyone is capable of doing anything."
Flying never gets old to her and neither does the reason why she loves her job.
"There's nearly 700,000 men and women who serve in the Air Force and it's really a great experience to get to represent them. We live in a great country and we have a great air force and I love to help put that on display."
The Shaw Air Expo will be open to the public May 5 - 6, 2012.
During the Shaw Air Expo one of the Thunderbirds jets will have the name of Army Spc. Abraham Wheeler painted on the side as part of their Fallen Heroes program. He's was a Columbia soldier who died from an IED attack in Afghanistan in 2009
Play honors flying ace Jackie Cochran
From MyDesert.com: Play honors flying ace Jackie Cochran
Two months before the 75th anniversary of Amelia Earhart's disappearance, a Rancho Mirage company is helping to launch a play about how the aviatrix's final journey impacted desert icon Jackie Cochran.
Titled “Jinxed,” the play will get a staged reading Saturday by the Script2Stage2Screen performing arts arm of the Unitarian Universalist Church at the Indian Wells Theater at Cal State San Bernardino's Palm Desert campus.
New York playwright Stacey Luftig said she titled her play “Jinxed” after reading in Doris Rich's 2007 biography, “Jackie Cochran: Pilot in the Fastest Lane,” that Cochran felt jinxed while competing with Earhart for recognition as America's greatest female pilot.
“She was in race after race and something would always go wrong,” Luftig said in an interview at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rancho Mirage. “It wasn't until a few weeks after Amelia's disappearance that Jackie started making world records.
“It was kind of like a passing of the torch and I started thinking, why did her jinx lift then?”
Cochran, who died in Indio in 1980 at age 74, met Earhart at a party in 1935. Shortly after Earhart's disappearance, Luftig said Cochran began setting aviation records. A year later, she won her first of five Harmon trophies as the outstanding female pilot.
She's buried in the Coachella Valley Public Cemetery and the Thermal airport is named after her.
Luftig, who has had plays and operettas produced across the nation, hadn't heard of Cochran before attending a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts retreat in 1999.
The poet Enid Shomer was compiling a book of poems about Cochran, titled “Stars At Noon,” and Luftig was so moved, she and Shomer began adapting them into monologues at the next year's retreat.
When that didn't work, she began researching a play on Cochran.
The first draft, completed in 2003, was 130 pages long with 30 characters.
“When I started to research Jackie, I felt there was enough material for a mini-series,” she said. “This is a woman who met Orville and Wilbur Wright and was also involved in setting up an astronaut training program for women (while) the first astronaut program for men was happening. She was involved in aviation for the bulk of the 20th century. She was a test pilot. She was a champion of aviation medicine. This is a woman who ended up with more speed, distance and altitude records than anyone — male or female. It's extraordinary.”
This will be the play's fourth reading. It was a 2011 O'Neill Playwright's Conference finalist and audience favorite at the Dayton Playhouse FutureFest last October. Burt Peachy of Script2Stage2Screen read Luftig's manuscript at the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha last summer. The veteran director had met Cochran in 1955 and made a deal to do a reading of the play in the desert.
Darci Daniels will read the Cochran part and Bonnie Gilgallon will play Earhart. Luftig said she'd like to find a regional theater company to produce the script's first full-length performance.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Queen of the skies: High-flying Kate, 25, becomes one of Britain's youngest female airline pilots
A woman who fell in love with planes as a nine-year-old child when she was invited to sit in a cockpit has become one of Britain's youngest women pilots aged just 25.
Kate Moran's achievements in a male-dominated industry prove she's got substance and style.
Having graduated in Aviation Technology from the University of Leeds, Kate has carved out a career in an industry where fewer than five per cent of pilots are women.
Kate, a pilot for Devon-based airline Flybe, said: 'As far back as I can remember, I have always been interested in flying.
'The turning point was when I was able to sit with the pilots in the flight deck. I was nine years old and the captain asked if I wanted to sit there while the plane landed.'
From that moment on, Kate was single-minded in her pursuit to become a pilot choosing science and mathematics over the arts - 'any subject geared towards a career in flying'.
After graduating from university, Kate struggled to find a job in the midst of the recession. But she successfully applied to Flight Training Europe (FTE) and attended an aviation school in Spain where she also secured a position on the Flybe mentoring programme.
She spent 14 months at flight school getting 800 hours of ground school under her belt and taking on 14 subjects including flight navigation, radio navigation, principals of flight and meteorology.
In order to continuing training, every candidate has to get a pass mark of at least 90 per cent in each exam - something Kate achieved.
At FTE Kate gained her Commercial Pilot's Licence enabling her to fly a small four-seater, single-engine aircraft.
She then moved on to a six-seater twin engine aircraft and then a Q400.
Potential pilots must also gain their instrument rating, to enhance their skills and proficiency to a higher, safer level.
Kate said: 'You need to know the mechanics and principals around how the aircraft works - I know more about my aircraft than my car.'
She recalled: 'The first time I got control of a Q400 was at Preswick when I had to do six take offs and landings.
'The aircraft was empty of passengers and I had to fly it from Edinburgh to Preswick I did the landings and then we flew back. It's an amazing feeling.'
Recently the Mancunian, who moved to Exeter, Devon, after getting a job with Flybe, realised a long-held dream of flying into her home city airport.
'I had this ambition to fly there and I finally got to do that.' she said.
'I'm getting paid to do my hobby - how many people can say that? There has never been a time when I have wanted to do anything else.'
It's an expensive hobby.
Kate is starting her career with £80,000 worth of debt accumulated from paying for the 14-month intensive live-in course at the Spanish flight school and a pilot loan.
She said: 'I guess that money could have been put towards a house and I will to paying it off over a long period. 'However it is all worth it in the end as it setting me up for a lifelong career, so the positives far outweigh the negatives.' As a newly qualified pilot, most of Kate's salary will be eaten up paying for rent and paying off the loan - most loans are payable within seven years. Fortunately, she can expect to be a captain on a Q400 or a first officer on a jet within three years boosting her salary As with any profession, salaries increase with experience. Figures from October 2011 show that a direct entry captain for Flybe can earn up to £82,000 compared to £81,509 with Easyjet and £65,000 with Emirates. The high debt and comparatively low starting salaries mean it's not a career for the not-quite sure. Kate said: 'I've got the aviation bug. It's a lot of hard work training to become a pilot but it's so rewarding in the end.'