Title
Recognizing and honoring the heroism of Captain Tammie Jo Shults, who successfully executed an emergency landing of Southwest Flight 1380 at the Philadelphia International Airport on April 17, 2018, saving the lives of 148 people in the aftermath of a blown engine.
Body
WHEREAS, Captain Tammie Jo Shults, a 56 year old pilot and Navy veteran, grew up in New Mexico and dreamed of becoming a pilot from a young age when she would watch Air Force planes fly over her family's ranch. In her junior year in college, she met a "girl who had just received her Air Force wings" and said, "My heart jumped. Girls did fly!"; and
WHEREAS, Following her undergraduate education, Captain Shults was denied entry into the Air Force on the basis of her gender, but remained determined to "break into the club" of male military aviators. She enlisted in the Navy as a pilot, thus initiating a decade of courageous service that transcended and broke gender boundaries; and
WHEREAS, Upon finishing flight school, Captain Shults became one of the first female fighter pilots in the Navy to fly a tactical aircraft, and was the first to fly an F/A 18 Hornet. During the Gulf War, Shults' squadron was led by the Navy's first female air commander in an era when women were seldom in combat missions. As a result of her service, Captain Shults rose quickly to the rank of Lieutenant Commander; and
WHEREAS, Captain Shults retired from the Navy in 1993 as a highly-decorated officer, honored with a National Defense Service Medal, expert pistol Marksmanship Medal and twice awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal; and
WHEREAS, Captain Shults became a commercial pilot at Southwest Airlines, not only breaking ground as one of the few women in her field but as a military pilot in a time when today only a third of private sector U.S. pilots have military backgrounds, down from 80 percent in the 1960s; and
WHEREAS, Captain Shults credits her deep religious faith and love of ...
Click here for full text