Blue Angels name 1st woman pilot

 For the first time in its 76-year history, the Navy’s Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team will have a woman flying as part of its six-jet team. A woman pilot has been selected to join the team for a historic 2023 air-show season, a source with direct knowledge confirmed to The War Zone, who is withholding her identify until an official announcement. Lt. Chelsea M. Dietlin, the Blue Angels spokesperson, did not deny a woman had been selected, but noted: "Women have been flying the Super Hornet in the Navy for over 30 years." (Source: The Drive 07/17/22) Gulf Coast Note: The Blue Angels' airshow season home is NAS Pensacola, Fla.  First Woman Blue Angels Jet Demonstration Pilot Selected | The Drive 

UPDATE

LT Amanda Lee names first Blue Angels' demo team pilot

The Navy has selected a female fighter pilot to join the Blue Angels' elite flight demonstration team for the first time in the squadron's 76-year history. Navy Lt. Amanda Lee, who is stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., will start intensive training this fall to pilot one of the six F/A-18 Super Hornets. Lee is currently on the flight demonstration team at Strike Fighter Squadron 106, "The Gladiators". Lee was one of six new team members announced July 18. Other members include a flight surgeon, an events coordinator, a C-130J Super Hercules pilot and an aviation maintenance officer to "replace outgoing team members," according to the Blue Angels statement. Lee was an enlisted aviation electronics technician before joining a seaman-to-admiral commissioning program. She is not the squadron's first female pilot. Marine Maj. Katie Cook, with the Blue Angels in 2015, was the squadron's KC-130 "Fat Albert" logistics aircraft pilot. (Source: UPI 07/18/22) Navy's Blue Angels name first female fighter jet pilot - UPI.com