First female pilots join the Pakistani Air Force

The Pakistani airforce inducted its first four female pilots on March 30th.

“I want to fly fighter jets and prove that girls can equally serve our country in the best possible manner as men are doing,” Flying Officer Gul, 22, said after graduating from the air force’s elite training academy in Risalpur. [AP]

Are American servicewomen allowed to fly planes in combat?

Via 3Quarks.

Comments

[scarshapedstar]

No, 'cuz if you let them fly you'd have to let gays fly and before you knew it we'd all be wearing burkas.

[Minnesotachuck]

I'm about 99.44% sure the answer is 'Yes'.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I know the US has female fighter pilots, but I'm not sure if these women are technically allowed to fly combat missions. Women were authorized to fly fighter jets in 1993, but according to http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123007277>this 2004 article on female fighter pilots:

More women are also forming on the front lines -- not in combat, but in combat-related positions.

Of course, in Iraq, a lot of people who are technically in combat support positions engage combat on a regular basis.

[Joe]

Some links:

http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/09/female.pilot/

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/pilots.html

[Bryan@shotgunfreude]

NASA shuttle pilot and Air Force colonel Pamela Melroy logged 200 hours of combat and combat support piloting time in Panama and Iraq in '89 and '91.

[asg]

There are almost 500 women combat pilots in the U.S. armed forces. As far as I know, women are allowed to fly all types of missions.

[white (non-Anglosaxon) male]

i thought it was already 50 percent of women among combat pilots. damn it American army should quickly apply the rules of "positive discrimination", oh sorry "affirmative action" as you put it, cheers :)

[Majitheses]

Why do we meet here and emphasize the "success" of women doing what is thought they would not do? It only brings to question, what is the definition of success? what was it against? O yes it was against men, those chauvinistic men how we must loathe them and ignore what they say or atleast what the ones that are dead used to say. Please move on.