‘SiS’ to lead F-16 Viper Demo Team

The Air Force recently named Capt. Zoe "SiS" Kotnik to be the first female pilot to command the F-16 Viper Demo Team based out of Shaw AFB, S.C. "I can't believe I have this opportunity," Kotnik said in a Jan. 29 interview with Live Airshow TV. She will lead the 17-member demonstration team to more than 20 air shows in 2019, including stops along the Gulf Coast at Lake Charles, La. (May 11-12), Stuart, Fla. (Nov. 2-3) and a final season show Nov. 9-10 at NAS Pensacola, Fla., along with the Blue Angels. The Air Force Academy graduate was commissioned in May 2011. Upon graduation, she was selected for undergraduate pilot training at NAS Whiting Field, Fla., where she flew the T-6B Texan II and T-38C Talon from August 2011 to March 2013 . Her operational assignments include being assigned to the 35th Fighter Squadron at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, and the 55th Fighter Squadron at Shaw AFB where she flew missions in support of Operation Noble Eagle. Capt. Kotnik was raised in Poynette, Wis., with a family of aviators. Her mother was a private pilot and her uncle, Aviation Hall of Fame pilot Charlie Hillard, was the first American to win the World Aerobatics Championships. (Source: Military Times 02/07/19)