HOW AN A-10 PILOT SURVIVED A MISSILE HIT OVER BAGHDAD
May 8, 2023Lauren Warner
Kim Campbell is not your average Air Force pilot. In fact, there’s nothing average about her. The year Campbell entered the Air Force Academy — 1993 — was the first year the Air Force allowed females to become fighter pilots. Thirty years later, only 20% of all Air Force pilots are female.
Campbell joined the 75th Fighter Squadron as an A-10 pilot in 2000. At that time, there were only 43 female fighter pilots in the Air Force, just more than 1% of the entire fighter pilot force; today, that percentage has roughly doubled.
However, her journey to becoming a pilot began many years earlier.
“When I was in fifth grade, I decided I wanted to be an astronaut,” Campbell said. “I remember watching the launch of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. At that moment, there was the thrill and excitement of the launch and then the devastation that played out.
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