She is our nation’s first African-American and female US Air Force fighter pilot. She’s Major Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell. She recently was here in Indianapolis to speak to young people at the Children’s Museum and Afternoons with Amos listeners got a chance to meet her. Maj. Kimbrell is a native Hoosier, born in lafayette Indiana as her dad was a doctoral student at Purdue University. She always wanted to fly and got her pilots license while a teenager. Kimbrell entered the Air Force Academy, graduating in 1998. She entered flight school and received her pilots wingers in 1999. Maj. Kimbrell began in other types of aircraft before earning the opportunity to fly the world’s top fighter aircraft, the famed F-16. Maj. Kimbrell has been stationed domestically and overseas and flew combat missions at the start of the Iraq war. Currently Maj. Kimbrell is stationed at Nellis AFB in Nevada where she trains pilots how to work with the Army in air to ground mission coordination.
Click the Arrow Below to hear Amos’ Interview with America’s 1st Black Fighter Pilot Maj. Rochelle Kimbrell. Runs 9 Minutes ©2012 WTLC/Radio One.
