Connie Goldsmith - Women in the Military: From Drill Sergeants to Fighter Pilots

I will not resign myself to the lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines [mistresses]. I wish to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks.

Vietnamese warrior Trieu Thi Trinh

third century CE

O ne hot July afternoon in 2009, Captain Mary Jennings sat in her Pave Hawk helicopter at the American air base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Her shift had just started and as copilot, she checked the helicopters radios and equipment. MJ, as she was called, looked up as her crewthe pilot who led the mission, the engineer, and the gunnerjogged over to her helicopter. It was REDCON-1, time for the unit to move out.

The mission was to rescue three badly wounded American soldiers about half an hour away. The convoy had hit an improvised explosive device, a simple homemade device that detonates when a vehicle drives over it or a person steps on it. The convoy was under attack by the Taliban, the insurgent (rebel) Muslim group fighting the United States and allied troops in Afghanistan. As MJ started the rotors, three parajumpers assigned to the mission climbed aboard the helicopter with their medical supplies and gear. Parajumpers are part of the US Air Force Special Operations force and are trained for all environments. They engage the enemy in combat, if necessary, and provide medical assistance to the wounded.

MJ copiloted Pedro One Five, the lead helicopter. Its sister ship, Pedro One Six, followed behind and to one side as backup and protector. Both helicopters carried a crew of four, and Pedro One Five carried the parajumpers as well. When Pedro One Five and One Six reached the ambushed convoy, two heavily armed US Army Kiowa helicopters were holding off the Taliban fighters so Pedro One Five could land and evacuate the wounded soldiers.

Pedro One Fives pilot executed a spectacular steep landing to avoid Taliban snipers. Two of the three parajumpers leaped out and ran toward the convoy. The third parajumper remained on board the helicopter. His role was to take over as mission leader if the pilot came under fire. The helicopter took off as soon as the parajumpers hit the ground. Pedro One Five would land again when the parajumpers radioed that the patients were stable and ready for transport. Once patients and parajumpers were aboard, the helicopters would head to Frontenac, a Canadian base not far from Kandahar.

One Five came under heavy fire soon after it took off. I heard a crack like a baseball bat hitting a home run, and then the helos windshield shattered right in front of my eyes, MJ wrote later in her 2017 memoir Shoot Like a Gi rl . Through the web of splintered glass, the Kandahar desert hills stretched out for miles in front of me.... My right arm felt warm and wet, but I ignored it.

The crew looked at MJ in horror and shouted at her over the intercom. For an instant all I could hear was the high whine of the engine and the deep comforting thunder of the rotor blades. I followed [the pilots] gaze to the blood spreading over my exposed arm and the leg of my flight suit. Im hit, but... I can still fly, she told her crew.

The parajumper insisted on examining her. Shrapnel had sprayed her arm and thigh. MJs arm wound was minor, but her leg wound was bleeding heavily. The pilot radioed base to say the copilot had been hit and they were returning. Yet MJ insisted. Look guys, I swear! I have full range of motion and my leg has already stopped bleeding. Weve got three cat-A [badly injured] soldiers down there. Lets get back to it. She convinced her team to stay on task.

One of the two parajumpers on the ground radioed to say the injured soldiers were ready for pickup. He had no idea Pedro One Five had been hit by gunfire. MJs helicopter radioed Pedro One Six for covering fire so that One Five could land. The sister ship radioed back that one of its machine guns had malfunctioned and that it could not help.

While under heavy enemy fire, Pedro One Five landed to pick up one parajumper and three patients. (The other parajumpers location was unknown.) As the wheels touched down, heavy slugs from [enemy] machine guns began to hit us hard... our eight-ton [7.3 t] aircraft rocked like a little rowboat on the ocean, MJ later said. The Taliban fighters were in an excellent positionentrenched on a high hill firing down on Pedro One Fiveto cause maximum damage.

Then things got really bad.

Mary Jennings Hegar is a retired Air National Guard pilot. She wrote a memoir called Shoot Like a Girl , published in 2017, about her experiences in the US military. In 2018 she ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives to represent her district in Texas.

Pedro One Five took off carrying a very heavy load: four crew, three patients, and two parajumpers. MJ soon realized that gunfire had hit the helicopters fuel lines. In minutes, the helicopter lost all its fuel and landed hard, while under enemy fire. Covered in blood and fuel, MJ grabbed her rifle and exited the damaged helicopter, ready to engage the enemy in active combat.