Great Catch: First All-Female Fly By over Super Bowl LVII

Picture this: You’re a child whose mother and father decided to make the Super Bowl LVII their family outing for the year. Or, you’re a kiddo sitting on the ground, legs splayed out under the little side table, which is littered with potato chips and soda cans--you originally sat down there to be closer to the food action, but now your eyes are trained on the screen: It’s time for the fly-by on Super Bowl Sunday LVII.

You can’t help but watch as a tight formation of small, pointed aircraft courses across the screen. You hear a couple adults mention something about the first all-female squadron to fly the Super Bowl. Hmm. You’d sure like to fly an F-35 Lighting II at around 345 miles per hour over State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Meet the Pilots

Making history are seven women: Lt. Arielle Ash (pilot), Lt. Saree Moreno (weapons system officer), Lt. Naomi Ngalle (weapons systems officer), Lt. Caitie Perkowski (pilot) flying the two F/A-18F Super Hornets; Lt. Margaret Dente (pilot), and Lt. Lyndsay Evans, (electronic warfare officer); and Lt. Suzelle Thomas (pilot) of the F-35C Lightning II.

That specific Lightning II is being flown by none other than Lt. j.g. Suzelle Thomas, who received her Wings of Gold, meaning that she is now serving as a part of the aircraft crew aboard military aircraft. In addition to completing her training with the Lightning II, a Lockheed Martin Naval variant, Thomas is an accomplished graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in political science. She directly selected the F-35C after her aircraft training.

Image: ABC News

The Women of the Navy

Let’s scale out to consider for a moment just what Suzelle and the other pilots have accomplished. Within the navy, there are currently 7,000 active duty pilots. Women make up only 12% of the entire naval air force. At first this number may come as a shock, however, considering that the Navy didn’t open up its branch to female aviators until 1974, when in February, Lieutenant j.g. Barbara Allen became the first female naval aviator.

This year, the female flight looks to highlight the accomplishments of the women past and present who have served during the past fifty years since women were allowed to become U.S. Naval Pilots. Since that start, women have accomplished many great feats for their country even without recognition in the direct military branches. For example, the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) who, during World War II, flew a total of 60 million miles on numerous missions. While not considered service members, they also did not receive military benefits or burials for their service, apart from retroactive military service awarded in 1977 and a Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. In 1953, Jacqueline Cochran broke the sound barrier, but was still denied service in military capacities. It wasn’t until 1976 that women were allowed into the pilot training program, although prohibiting them from flying combat missions.

Today, women apprise 12 percent of all navy pilots. They are still grossly underrepresented in areas of service. However, let’s appreciate just how much the women who are and have served have been able to accomplish on their own.

If you want it, be it. If you're not it, support it.

The women flying today represent the best of what our military has to offer. Operating some of the most advanced aircraft that the world has ever seen, these women represent just how bright the future can be for female aviators, and in every single role necessary for an aircraft to take flight: from engineers to test crews to pilots to mechanics to safety control personnel, to communicators to videographers.

So, for the children sitting on the floor listening to the conversations surrounding female aviators and the incredible women operating those

planes this evening, maybe consider bringing the question of how they too might one day become one of the female aviators, technicians, engineers, mechanics, or Naval Air Force personnel who take to the skies to break barriers of sound and gender to keep our nation safe to dream.