WEBVTT

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Growing up in an aviation family has a significant impact on children

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For 35th Fighter Squadron or Pantons, these pilots are no different

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One Airman from the time she was a small girl

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wanted to serve her country and fly

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I grew up kinda surrounded by aviation my entire life

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I would say that I probably grew up with the blood to fly

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just because people in my family, close friends and everything

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did a lot of flying, so I had a lot of exposure to it, so that was initially why I wanted to fly

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Getting to fly F16's is very competitive and she knows she did not get her alone

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Theres a larger community of female fighter pilots nowadays

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and its awesome its a community within itself basically

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It's awesome because you have somebody that set the precedent and someone that I can follow in their footsteps and ask questions and learn from them

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So I feel very fortunate that there have been several before me

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Women's History Month is the perfect time to learn about the first women Air Force pilots

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Jackie Cochran and Nancy Love

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I think whats coolest about their stories is the pursued aviation their entire life

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and even though they were shut down at different avenues of joining the services

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It was just awesome to see that they really ended up intertwining women in aviation

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and especially military aviation with the WASP's and WAFS's and the other female service pilots, which is just an incredible part of our history

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Carrying on the Panton's Push it up motto 1st Lt. Kotnik continues the rich tradition of women aviators as she defends the base

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SGT Lawren Massey, Kunsan Air Base, Korea