A US Navy fighter pilot became the first woman to make an air-to-air kill while being sent to fight the Houthis in the Red Sea, where the Iran-backed group has been fighting US troops for more than half a year in an engagement linked to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The anonymous pilot served in Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 32, known as the “Fighting Swordsmen,” and flew an F/A-18F Super Hornet, which she used to shoot down a Houthi drone, according to a Navy. release.
Maj. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, who just retired from service last year, became the first female fighter pilot in the Air Force in 1993. The Navy’s first female fighter pilot was Lt. Kara Hultgreen in 1994.
Also in 1994, Navy Lieutenant Kimberly “Face” Dyson became the first female fighter pilot to fly a combat mission in an operation designed to enforce a no-fly zone over Iraq.
VFA 32 has flown more than 3,000 combat hours and 1,500 combat missions, firing more than 20 air-to-air missiles at the Houthis in the Red Sea, where rebel fighters have been threatening merchant ships with rockets and drones since late October. long after. A war broke out between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The fighter squadron, based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, was part of the carrier strike group Dwight D. Eisenhower, which deployed to the Middle East in October to prevent a wider war from breaking out in the region after the attack on Gaza. war. The strike group recently left the Middle East.
Commander. Jason Hoch, commander of VFA-32, said he was proud of the team working under “incredibly demanding conditions.”
“The success of the entire squadron over the past nine months is a testament to every member of the command and their friends and family who support them,” Hoch said in a statement.
VFA-32 also led two of seven self-defense strikes into Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory and fired about 20 precision-guided air-to-surface munitions to hit targets in the U.S. mission designed to stop the rebel group from carrying out attacks on merchant ships. .
The Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group left the Middle East in June, after nine months of operations, and returned home in mid-July.
The Pentagon withdrew the sailors from the Navy and replaced them with the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
