WEBVTT

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- [Megan] I still get so excited

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every time I get to go fly.

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The feeling's kind of hard to explain,

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but the second we lift off the ground,

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all my worries just go away.

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It doesn't matter what kind of day I had,

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or how stressed I am at work

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or about other things in my life.

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You just feel really calm.

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Being able to see the
world from a different view

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always allows me to kind of step back

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and truly be thankful for
what I have and for my life.

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I'm First Lieutenant Megan Skalla,

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and I'm the youngest
female Black Hawk pilot

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in the 34th Expeditionary
Combat Aviation Brigade.

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I joined the Minnesota National Guard

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for a lot of different reasons.

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The big reason was because I felt

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like my faith was leading me.

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I felt like god was telling me to join,

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which was super-weird
and very out of the blue

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for my family, because none of my family,

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none of my civilians or anything

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have ever been in the military.

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I think I joined because
I knew I had a purpose,

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and I thought that my purpose was

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to serve other people,
to help other people.

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I would've never thought, six years ago,

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when I first enlisted that
I'd now be flying missions

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as a UH-60 Mike Black Hawk pilot.

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I finally feel like I've realized

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like, "This is it, this was my purpose."

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So far, this deployment has definitely

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been a challenge for me.

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This is my first time being
in a platoon leader position,

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so there was definitely some growing pains

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at the beginning, with just learning

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my job in general, and
mostly just learning

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what kind of leader I want to become.

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I think that the biggest
thing I've learned

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is if you take good care of your soldiers

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that they will definitely take
good care of you, as well.

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While I don't know too
many other female pilots

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that are on this deployment,

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all the ones that I do
know are just incredible.

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They are absolute rock stars at their job.

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They inspire me every day.

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They inspire me to never be afraid.

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They inspire to me stand up for myself,

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speak up more and basically
they just inspire me

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to continue to share
with other, younger girls

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that they can become pilots, too.

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They can become crew chiefs, maintainers,

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flight engineers, really
they can do anything

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that they put their minds to.

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I think it's kinda hard to see myself

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as a role model for those girls,

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because I know that I still have so much

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to learn myself, and when I look

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at the women who are my role models,

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like the WASPs from World War II,

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who flew almost every
type of military aircraft,

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they were extremely intelligent,

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hard working and determined women.

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I look at them, I think that
that is the kind of woman

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that I wanna be like,
and I hope that one day

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I can be someone's role model.

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I think I just wanna be remembered

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for being the hard worker that I am

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and for always trying my best

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and that I never give up.