Hang out with my husband as much as I can. All rights reserved. Over the past decade, she's logged more than 1,200 flight hours as a pilot and was the first woman assigned to fly in the . Norah O'Donnell flies with the Thunderbirds at the Heritage Flight Academy in Ronkonkama, NY. Michelle "MACE" Curran - Speaker, Author - LinkedIn 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4, 2017. His military experience includes being Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Georgia (Cycle C-6-1) and as a Scout Observer in a reconnaissance unit, Company F, 425th INF (RANGER/AIRBORNE), Long Range Surveillance Unit (LRSU). Her favorite maneuver is the vertical roll. (Ive always liked roller-coasters, Im a thrill-seeker, and I wanted to travel, she explains.) Recently, Curran took a two-day break on Mackinac Islandwith some of the other squadronmembers. "It's cool to really show them what I get to do for a living up close and personal," she said. Lover of aviation, mountains, fitness, & adventure. Hang out with my husband as much as I can. Canceled: Golf (Boys V) @ Southern Wells Jr-Sr High School (Dogwood Glen Golf Course) 5/2/2023 4:30 PM, Canceled: Tennis (Girls) @ Bluffton 5/1/2023 4:30 PM, Canceled: Softball (V) @ Bellmont 5/1/2023 5:30 PM, Canceled: Softball (JV) @ Huntington North 5/1/2023 5:30 PM, Canceled: Baseball (V) @ Bellmont 5/1/2023 5:30 PM. A Day With Major Michelle Curran, the Only Female Thunderbird Pilot in the U.S. Air Force Cady Drell September 27, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. 277 talking about this. So in a way, women make for more natural fighter pilots. There wasnt a female pilot at the time, but a woman was narrating the air show from the ground and Curran was in awe. In 2016, sheserved a two-month deployment inthe skies over Afghanistan. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? 7-year-old Amelia has always dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot, and she gets the surprise of a lifetime when she meets her hero, Major Michelle Curran, a Thunderbird Pilot in the United States Air Force "I'm trying to take that advice and go with it," she said. michelle curran married In Captain Marvel, Brie Larson plays Carol Danvers, an Air. Copyright 2023 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes, Octavio Colmenares Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, NetWorth & Know More. It means she's front and center in one of. Theres 12 officers on a teamif you look at the officers alone as a sample, our team next year will have four women, Curran says. Their one free day a week is Wednesday, so Curranwho recently married her husband, a U.S. Marine Corps veteransays she keeps her time off simple: Laundry. Her favorite maneuver is the vertical roll. This level of comfort took years to develop. Only five women have flown in the Air Force's elite squadron. She has more than 1,500 hours on the airframe, with 163 of those logged as combat hours during Operation Resolute Support and Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan. Before that, the WAFWomen in the Air Forceformed in 1948, but WAFs werent permitted to fly and instead performed ground duties. I live in a fifth-floor walkup, I offered. Im sad that Mace is leaving the Thunderbirds, but still, I wish her all the best as she continues to pursue her dreams. This shift in airshow schedules meant that Maj. Currans social media contributions grew to become much more vital for sustaining the relevance of the Thunderbirds for public audiences.Curran has labored with the Thunderbird group media personnel to convey scintillating in-cockpit viewpoint video of the lead solos dynamic routine throughout the Thunderbird demonstration, together with thrilling video of opposing maneuvers with Thunderbird #6 and her signature vertical rolls throughout the groups high show.