Program Liaison Officer, Headquarters, Marine Corps

It was early 2003 and U.S. forces were on their way to Baghdad. We were flying escort for Marines on the ground and they were ambushed. We could see enemy on the ground, running. We were getting shot at; air bursts were going off everywhere. And the next thing I saw on my weapons display was just a spinning tape. All of our weapon systems went dead

That was kind of a scary moment. I felt helpless because on my first tour in Iraq, I was a Cobra co-pilot up in the front seat. I couldn’t shoot anything; couldn’t do anything, I felt like a sitting duck, pretty much. But the Cobra on our wing had all its weapon systems up and they “lased” for us, and we were actually able to get the Hellfire off. So we prosecuted targets that way.

When I returned from Iraq the first time, my mom and dad, and mom and dad, came out to L.A. to meet me. I have two sets of parents. My brother and his wife were there, and my younger brother and his girlfriend. My cousins came, too, and my mom cooked. She’s from Memphis — the South — so we had great food. It was an awesome several days. In Iraq, what you miss the most is friends, love, support and being in that positive environment.

My introduction to the Marines was through a recruiter in the Student Union at Middle Tennessee State University. I had aspired to be a police officer since I was 4. At Army ROTC Advance Camp, my battle buddy wanted to go to the aviation tent. You walk in and it’s kind of dim. My eyes started adjusting and standing at the front was a black female in a flight suit. I thought, “man, that’s cool. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Four years later, I was a college graduate and a rookie police office, and I realized I could always be a cop, but you won’t always get the opportunity to be an officer in the Marine Corps and a naval aviator. So eight years and two combat tours later, here I am.

My personal view on women in combat is a Marine is a Marine. All of Iraq is a combat zone. If you were to say females shouldn’t go into combat, you would pretty much have to take all of the women out of the units that are going over, and it would just totally disintegrate what we’re about.

I’m the first black female combat pilot in DoD history. It was kind of weird in 2003 to be the first at something. It’s humbling. You have to be a positive role model out there, but we’re breaking ground and that’s great, too.

Today, I speak at a lot of schools and youth organizations. I want to reach out to the young people. My message is, No. 1, find your passion. What is God’s gift to you? Two, what is your purpose in your passion? What is it that you are supposed to be doing with that gift? And three, take the positive steps to achieve your goals. It all boils down to tests and studying and doing well in school. That is your foundation.

I tell them, “you’re always going to have tests in life, so don’t think it ends in school.” To get into the Marine Corps, I had to take a test. Flight school? More tests. There are many tests in life and not all of them are written. Iraq itself, in a war, that’s the ultimate test.