Women F-16 Fighter pilots take flight at Holloman Air Force Base

[@aviatrix9924]

Continue from above: That's when I understood what 1LT Ruland meant when she said, "It doesn't feel real... with the beautiful mountains in the background and the blue sky. And then, you know, you come back and land. And I always tell my family, takeoff and landing is what feels real when you're in the air. It's like you're in a different world." We reach forty thousand feet in the air and vertically drop to three hundred feet off the ground. The forces took a physical toll. The pressure immobilizing my body to the point that at times, I couldn't take a breath. Capt. Thaxton says, "So thankfully, the Air Force is starting to realize how much of a toll flying has put on our body." We reach super sonic speeds and I felt seven times the force of gravity on my body. "We have a super, all encompassing training program here. So not only do we have the flight line training, but we also have nutritionists, says 1LT Ruland. "We've got, athletic trainers, we've got massage therapists." We land after about two hours in the air. I was here that I was given my call sign RAGE, which stands for: Reporter Gets Aggressively Extruded. I was sick the entire flight. Whenever flying, Capt. Thaxton and 1LT. Ruland remember the women who blazed the trail before them. "Knowing that there were women that came before us, that had to pave the way and had to deal with really tough situations. But they established a path, says 1LT Ruland. "Now for young fighter pilots like Ashley and I, we get to show up every day and not really worry about any of the tough biases or anything like that, and we get to prove ourselves to be great fighter pilots every day, not just great female fighter pilots."

[@overbank56]

Well done!

[@amos3457]

👍👍👍👍👍❤️