AirSpaceMag.com

Nicole Malachowski

The first woman to fly with a U.S. military high-performance demonstration squadron, Malachowski was Air Force Thunderbird pilot number 3 for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. In September 1999, she turned 25 as a first lieutenant flying the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle at the Royal Air Force Lakenheath base in the United Kingdom. “So, 1999 for me hinged on basically learning to be the best F-15E wingman I could be,” she says. That year she began dating husband Paul, an F-15E weapons systems operator. Today, with more than 180 combat hours, and children, she’s back in the F-15E at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. “If you add on eight-month-old twins,” she says “it’s downright crazy at times.”

USAF

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Photos from: "What Were They Doing at 25?" »