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Valued Contributor
Posts: 919
Registered: ‎10-12-2016
@golding76, great read - thanks for posting it!
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,341
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: Tammie Jo Shults

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Wrong is still wrong just because you benefited from it.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,739
Registered: ‎05-19-2012

Re: Tammie Jo Shults

[ Edited ]

The unflappability of Tammie Jo Shults reminds me of a comment one of my sons jokingly (but astutely) made about my short-lived dreams of taking flying lessons -- for the first time -- in my late 60s.

 

Okay, I admire aviators, especially female aviators, but I am also a mess of jumbled and anxious nerves.  Cool in the face of danger?  No way!

 

My son said, "Yes, Mom, I can just see it now.  As soon as you have a problem, you will be screaming, 'I'm going to die!  We're all going to die.' "  Sadly, I think he was correct in his evaluation of my shortcomings.  I put away that thought of flying lessons.

 

Back to Aviator Shults -- she is perfection!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,713
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Gives me chills thinking about what the people on that flight went through, can you even imagine the fear?  LOVE this Captain for her tremendous skill and especially her nerves of steel. 

Valued Contributor
Posts: 919
Registered: ‎10-12-2016
@Mj12, I had the same thought about fear, but the flip side to that is I bet many, if not all, of those on board have a new appreciation for life. Sometimes we get so caught up with our day-to-day problems we forget to appreciate all that's right and good around us.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,739
Registered: ‎05-19-2012

Re: Tammie Jo Shults

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Through my FAA office, I met one of the pioneer female aviators.  Her name was Velta Benn, and she had been a WASP during World War II.  Amazingly, she worked as a FAA examiner (designee) until her early 90's, as I recall.  She was small, wiry and one tough cookie.

 

Velta Haney Benn Alexandria, Virginia Inducted in 1983,

 

Velta Haney Benn was active in Virginia aviation for nearly 40 years. She accumulated more than 40,000 hours of flying time and earned a wide range of advanced pilot ratings. A former member of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, or Wasps, she was an FAA flight examiner and was the first woman to qualify to make takeoffs and landings in a jet aboard an aircraft carrier.

 

Image result for velta benn

 

Velta is on the left.  She and other WASPs were being honored.

 

I worked alongside another female pilot who was the fourth woman in the U.S. hired by a large commercial airline (United).  She was exceptionally feminine but you could not push her around.  Very independent-minded.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,725
Registered: ‎10-01-2013

I hope they put her on the cover of 'Time' magazine, she is truly deserving. What a hero.