Meet the Navy Women Who Made History On the Ground on Super Bowl Sunday
In a male-dominated field, these female naval mechanics made history in their own right, servicing the aircraft used in the game's first all-female flyover
How does the old saying go, “behind every good man is a woman?” Some would say the same is true for a country – and an aircraft.
On February 12th, history was made in the present when the National Football League had its first female flyover during the National Anthem preceding the league’s 57th Super Bowl championship.
Seven women, in four planes, flew in a diamond formation over State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to commemorate 50 years of women aviators in the Navy.
Two F/A-18F Superhornets, two EA-18G Growlers, and the Navy’s newest plane – the single-piloted F-35C Lightning II –executed a perfectly timed flyover as the national anthem was coming to a close.
A beautiful sight.
But the aircraft pilots, Lieutenants Calli Zimmerman, Margaret Dente, Lyndsay Evans, Arielle Ash, Naomi Ngalle, Catie Perkowski, and Suzelle Thomas weren’t the only naval women to make history on Super Bowl Sunday.
On the ground, and behind the scenes, was a nearly all-female maintenance crew to insure the safety of the aircraft, and their fellow sisters in naval service.
THE WOMAN WHO PAVED THE WAY – COMMAND MASTER CHIEF BETH LAMBERT
Command Master Chief Beth Lambert and former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci (Photo courtesy of Pilot Online)
Six years after the Navy selected eight women for aviator training in 1973, Command Master Chief Beth Lamberbert would become the first woman designated as an Aviation Structural Mechanic – making history and opening the door for Naval, Women’s, and American history to be made again.
One of the first women stationed on an aircraft carrier, in 1988, Lambert became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious honor of being U.S. Navy Shore Sailor of the Year. A position that took her to the nation’s capital to work directly with the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy – the branch’s most senior enlisted position.
In 1994, Lambert took command of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, making her the first female command master chief of an aircraft carrier.
The barrier-breaking Aviation Structural Mechanic retired after 30 years of faithful service in 2008.
I was surprised and impressed to see the diversity among the maintenance crew. Women from around the nation – and all walks of life – are following in the footsteps of the woman who paved the way for them to carve their names in the annals of history.
Let me introduce you…
CHIEF AVIATION MACHINIST MATE TABITHA BLEDSOE
Chief Petty Officer Tabitha Bledsoe (Photo courtesy of the United States Navy)
Wellsville, New York native, Chief Petty Officer Tabitha Bledsoe, was a part of the support team responsible for maintaining the aircraft seen in the flyover during the National Anthem.
Inspired by her father, who was in the Army, Bledsoe knew that she wanted to serve, and joining the Navy would allow her to mix her love of country with her desire to travel.
"Serving in the Navy means everything to me, and I wouldn't trade my service for anything," Bledsoe told Megan Brown at the Navy Office of Community Outreach.
"The Navy has given me an extended family that you would not find anywhere else. The number of experiences I've had and things I've learned to overcome can only be done while in the Navy." – American Connections Media Outreach
A member of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147, the 14-year Navy veteran was assigned to the flyover’s only solo plane – the F-35C piloted by Lt. Suzelle Thomas.
Named Senior Sailor of the Year in 2021, Chief Petty Officer Bledsoe has completed four missions and currently performs and trains missions.
AVIATION STRUCTURAL MECHANIC FIRST CLASS CAITLIN HILLYGUS
Petty Officer 1st Class Caitlin Hillygus (Photo courtesy of the United States Navy)
When Aviation Structural Mechanic Caitlin Hillygus graduated from Sandia High School in 2007, the Albuquerque, NM native had dreams of serving in the Navy.
Though she hails from a military family – both her mother (Air Force) and grandmother (Marines) served in the armed forces – Hillygus would delay that dream for nearly a decade.
“I had wanted to enlist when I was 18,” Hillygus says. “My parents talked me out of it and I went to college. I was 27 when I went into the Navy. It was a quarter-life crisis. I still had the itch for wanting to be in the military. If I didn’t do it at that time, I wouldn’t have done it.”– Albuquerque Journal
Six years later she’d be a part of history.
“This event is so huge,” the Petty Officer First Class said. “It’s seen by millions and we have to be on point in getting all the logistics together for the flyover.”
Being in the Navy is tough – being in the Navy as a woman and in a field that has historically been dominated by men is even tougher. But with hard work and determination anything and everything is possible.
“I’ve always wanted to be around women who are making a difference,” she says. “Sixteen years ago, I was addressing women finding a place in a male-dominated world. Now I’m part of the change.”
Petty Officer First Class Hillygus was assigned to maintain the EA-18G Growler.
AVIATION STRUCTURAL MECHANIC SECOND CLASS MIKAYLA MARTIN
Petty Officer 2nd Class Mikayla Martin (Photo courtesy of the United States Navy)
An Aurora, Colorado native, Petty Officer Second Class Mikayla Martin was just one of several African-American women making up the maintenance crew on Super Bowl Sunday.
Martin enlisted shortly after graduating from Cherokee Trail High School in 2017 and celebrated five years of Navy service on January 29th of this year.
"I've always wanted to serve my country, and I felt like the Navy was a great place for me to go,” the sailor said.
"Serving in the Navy means the world to me. I have always wanted to serve my country and protect the people that call America home." – Mikayla Martin
Instilled with a strong ethic, the naval Petty Officer, was always told to “put her best foot forward,” in whatever she chose to do. Something she believes equipped her to give the Navy – and this country – her best.
A member of Chief Petty Officer Bledsoe’s squadron, Martin was assigned with her shipmate to service the F-35C.
AIRCREW SURVIVAL EQUIPMENTMAN SECOND CLASS NATALIE GARCIA
Petty Officer 2nd Class Natalie Garcia (Photo courtesy of the United States Navy)
Flight safety is about more than just the mechanics of the aircraft, but extends to the life-saving equipment needed to insure the safety of the pilots and crew – that’s where Petty Officer Second Class Natalie Garcia comes in.
From San Diego, California, Garcia joined the Navy nine years ago.
A number of things can go wrong when flying tens of thousands of feet in the air, and Aviation Survival Equipmenmen are the ones responsible for ensuring in the event of an emergency, the flight crew is prepared.
Rigging parachutes on the off-chance that aviators and aircrew need to abort the aircraft mid-flight, and fixing shoulder harness stitching.
According to Garcia, she chose the Navy to see the world along with serving her country and has committed herself to helping other sailors on the journey.
“In my nine years in the service, I have helped junior sailors with their personal and professional growth,” Garcia said. “Through this experience, it has driven me to pursue becoming a command master chief for the Navy, so I can serve as the senior enlisted advisor for all sailors in the command.”
Thank you ladies for your incredible service.
Sources: American Connections Media Outreach, Albuquerque Journal, Navy.mil, and Navy.com
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I know that the chief petty officers and other highly positioned enlisted personnel are for all practical purposes the people who keep a ship functioning but I had never heard of Chief -- even a Command Chief -- taking command of a ship. It was my understanding that only commissioned officers can be in command. They tell the chiefs where the ship is to go and the chiefs make sure it gets there in time and in one piece. And in the unlikely event that the ship is involved in a collision at sea, it is the commissioned officer who takes most of the heat. At least that is what they taught me back in 1969-70 when I was a NROTC midshipman. That was the year that draft "lottery" numbers were assigned and I had made it a point not to know mine. But I was on my 3rd Class Cruise on a destroyer that was using Her Majesty's Royal Dockyard in the Firth of Forth to effect repairs on the 3 boilers which had become inoperable and I was sitting in the "Combat Information Center" (which was shut down) and looking at an old copy of Newsweek where I learned that my draft number was over 300. One of the crew members asked me "So what the "f" are you doing here?". Unable to come up with a good answer over the remainder of my cruise, I resigned my scholarship and went into debt to pay tuition.