First female U.S. fighter pilot speaks at Berks veterans event

Martha McSally remembers the feeling vividly, the sense that her stomach was tying itself in a knot and that she might throw up.

She was sitting in the cockpit of her A-10 Warthog Attack Plane flying over the Afghan desert and approaching her target. A distress call had been received from a recon team on the ground who had been ambushed.

They were pinned down in a canyon and surrounded, embroiled in the “firefight of their lives” with enemies scattered all around like a hornet’s nest.

McSally’s job was simple. Fire on the enemy from the sky and give the recon team a chance to be rescued.

The only problem was, as McSally neared the fight the heads-up display that helped her target the 30mm gun on her plane failed. That meant she would have to aim without the help of technology, hitting targets dangerously close to her own soldiers.

If she made a mistake, it could cost American lives. If she was off by only a little bit, an honor guard would be handing folded flags to grieving families.

“I said a little fighter pilot prayer: ‘Please, Lord, don’t let me mess this up,’” she told a crowd of nearly 700 gathered inside the ballroom at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Reading Friday afternoon.

McSally positioned her plane, took aim and fired. As she pulled back up, she got the message she was desperate to hear.

The recon team reported she had hit her target.

McSally made several more passes, helping to keep the enemy at bay while extraction teams got each and every one of the trapped soldiers out of the canyon. The fight was won.

It was the first time McSally won a battle, and it wouldn’t be her last.

McSally, the first-ever female U.S. fighter pilot, was the guest speaker Friday at the annual Berks County Veterans Luncheon. The event is held to honor local veterans, as well as to raise money for local organizations that assist veterans.

Since its inception in 2015, the event has raised $1 million.

Former Air Force pilot and first female combat fighter pilot Martha McSally tells her story during the Honoring Those Who Serve veterans’ luncheon at the DoubleTree by Hilton on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)

McSally, who after retiring from the U.S. Air Force represented Arizona in both the U.S. House and Senate, shared her story with the receptive crowd and looked to provide a little bit of inspiration for veterans struggling to find their way after taking off their uniforms.

She spoke about being a little girl prone to motion sickness who had no interest in ever piloting a plane. And she talked about being 12 years old and getting the news that her father, a Navy veteran, had been rushed to the hospital with a heart attack.

She recalled her last conversation with him, just a few hours before a second heart attack would take his life, where he told her to make him proud.

“As a 12-year-old girl, it changed my life in profound ways,” she said.

It’s part of the reason she decided to pursue a career in the military. A bit lost and searching for ways to honor her father, she headed to the U.S. Air Force Academy to become a fighter pilot.

When she got there, part of only the ninth class that included women, she was told that it was against the law for women to be fighter pilots. That didn’t sit well with her.

“It just pissed me off,” she said, adding that she decided she would fight to have the law changed. “I just put this dream in my heart and I wouldn’t let it go. Don’t tell me I can’t do something because I’m a girl.”

Ten years later, that battle was won. Congress changed the law, and McSally was in the right place at the right time with the right experience to take advantage of it.

Sometime later, McSally found herself in another fight. This time it was when she learned that female U.S. personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia were required to wear burkas, which covered them head to toe.

Feisty and a bit rebellious, she was sent to the country and refused to comply. And not only that, but she also decided to file a lawsuit against the secretary of defense.

“Not a really good career move, right,” she joked to the crowd.

McSally said part of her personal mantra is to never walk by a problem. And, she said, she believes it’s important to do the right thing even if comes at a personal cost.

So she fought. And, again, she won.

Eight years later, the U.S. changed its policy. And as a member of Congress, McSally proudly reported, she was able to drive around in Saudi Arabia wearing a pair of jeans.

Over 700 people attended the Honoring Those Who Serve veterans’ luncheon at the DoubleTree by Hilton on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)

McSally has taken on many other battles, too. That includes a fight against sexual abuse in the military, something she had experienced firsthand.

“I spoke my truth to the world,” she said of coming forward with her abuse story.

But after retiring from the Air Force and Congress, McSally found herself unsure of what fight to face next. Like many members of the military, shedding her uniform left her feeling a bit lost.

She said that it is so easy to define yourself with titles like colonel or fighter pilot or sergeant. Even outside of the military, people identify as CEO or IT manager or mom or dad or husband or wife, she said.

“We attach or identification to these external things,” she said. “But the external things end, they shift, they change. The truth is, that’s not who you are, that’s something you did.”

McSally said that it’s important that when a season of your life ends you shed those external things and take a look at what’s inside. Removing the olive green flight suit she was wearing, she revealed a bright red t-shirt underneath.

On it was scrawled a set of words: “I feel sad…alone, scared, lonely and vulnerable.”

McSally said often those are the feelings that are left after walking away from an identity based on external things. But they, too, aren’t who we are.

McSally pulled her T-shirt over her head, revealing a black tank top. On it were written another set of words: “I am…courageous, integrity, generous, growing, relentless.”

McSally said that it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that veterans are able to peel back the layers and find their own phrases that define them.

“You served honorably, that chapter is over,” she said. “But the true essence of who you are can continue.”

McSally said the public has a covenant with members of the military. While they agree to serve and sacrifice, the community agrees to provide them with whatever support they need.

“It takes everybody to do their part,” she said, lauding the efforts to help veterans happening in Berks. “You have saved lives, you have changed lives.”

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