CAPT AIMEE "REBEL” FIEDLER Hornet F-16

this is Jennifer cultural leadership today and I'm with Captain Amy Fiedler call sign Rebel what motivates you to be as a female pilot in like you said you want to be in NASA what motivates you to be now applying for you know so the motivation um I don't think it's gender specific you know I'll say that a lot where I never grew up thinking oh you know I can't do something because of my gender because I didn't have anybody in my life telling me that that was a thing that was going to hold me back so really what inspired me to be an aviator uh was you're right I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a little kid and then I kind of took a different path once I started flying I realized that was what I wanted to do with my career so I became a civilian flight instructor we call it general aviation GA so I spent about 10 years doing that before I joined the military and then joining the military it was an easy decision for me once I realized I did have that opportunity I learned about Officer school so Officer school you can apply for after you already have obtained a four-year degree and you don't have another commissioning source so I did not do ROTC or an academy so I didn't know that I had the chance to then join the military as an officer and be a pilot once I learned about that opportunity it was an easy decision because I wanted to give back and I could already do what I loved doing which is flying and I could also give back so it was kind of the perfect scenario for me I got the best of both worlds so did you fly from South Carolina over here to improve Valley we did but our team we're on a little bit of we call it a road a show or a road trip so we started our season in Laredo that was gosh two weeks ago and then we spent last week in Tucson Arizona training with the Heritage flight program which you guys will get to see all the things we learned this weekend because I will be flying with those planes and then now we're here so we've been gone for about three weeks and we're gonna stay on the road after this so it's kind of a bit of a travel gig you love traveling a lot of traveling a lot on this jet oh yes we take the Jets uh these are the the two airplanes that you'll see this weekend and these are the two jets that our team we don't own they're on loan to us from the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base but these are the only jets that we travel with and you like yeah the weather isn't great I think we have great weather for this weekend so put on your sunscreen uh but yeah it looks like it's going to be beautiful sunny 75 degrees all weekend and what was your motivation in your family to brought you where you're at who's your motivation to in your family that made you become where you're at [Music] the military ties in my immediate family um my older sister is a marine I think kind of what I tell everyone is you have to be qualified for the things you want to do in life and so my parents I'm one of five children or one of six so I um I'm number I have come from a large family so I have five siblings and all of us are doing something very different in life but I think it's because my parents taught us at a young age to be qualified for what you want to do so we were held to a high standard when it came to grades when it came to Athletics when it came to music and that kind of just molded me into the type of person that I am today where I'm always going to work hard at what I do and that's kind of like the personality of our entire team we're so small and we function on the road with limited supplies and limited limited maintenance materials but we're able to make this huge thing happen like I said we've been on the road for almost a month now and they've broken or you know I've broken the Jets they fixed them so every everybody has that attitude of we're gonna work hard and we're going to make it happen my last question is how do you think about Heritage with women's Heritage we're going to tell the ladies out there United States so I think uh you know again not gender specific but um you know it is important to realize where we've come from so there was a time in life where women were not allowed to be in a fighter jet or in a combat role but what I want to say now is that that has changed it's been over 30 years since women have been allowed to fly fighter jets and be in combat roles so it's time for the American public to change their perception so that I'm not getting to ask questions like this because things have been different for a really long time and to the general public they don't see it but I see women pilots every day I've worked with women pilots throughout my entire career so for me it wasn't until I started getting these questions at air shows and in the public that I realized that the perception is still so far behind we're almost 30 years behind in our perception whereas the Air Force and the military is 30 years ahead because no one's holding us back no one's telling us no as long as we can meet the mission we're able to be there so I want the general public to understand that from the inside looking out is very different from the outside looking in and so women are doing amazing things they have been for years and years and years and as the demo pilot I'm proud to represent both the amazing like men and women that I work with because I'm out here representing all the F-16 pilots who are you know downrange right now flying caps and doing all these things for the US and so I get to represent them on the road and everyone that I've met that's been in a squadron is an amazing human [Music]

Channel: CultureLeadershiptoday

Views: 34,502

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Id: vuvKH31RtZ0

Length: 5min 23sec (323 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023