Page 12 - MarinerMagazine_23Spring

NAVY NEWS

Blue Angel’s First

Female Jet Pilot:

Call Sign “Stalin”

By Yvette Purtill
The first female demonstration pilot for the Blue Angels is
Lt. Amanda Lee. Lee, who goes by the call sign “Stalin,”
is among the new six officers that will join the 2023 Blue
Angel’s show season. Lee stationed at Naval Air Station
Oceana is currently assigned to the “Gladiators” of Strike
Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106, which is the “Gladiators”
fly F/A-18E and the F/A-18F Super Hornets, which is
what the Blue Angels currently fly.

Lee is among the two that were accepted to fly the F/A-
18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets. The other is Lt. Cmdr.
Thomas Zimmerman, who is currently assigned to the Blue Angels Select Officers for 2023 Show Season, image by CPO
“Red Rippers” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 11. Paul Archer

Lee, who enlisted in the Navy in 2007, worked as an avia- female jet pilot to be accepted into the Blue Angels, she
tion electronics technician before participating in the sea- is not the squadron’s first female pilot. Marine Maj. Katie
man-to-admiral commissioning program. She was com- Cook, who joined the Blue Angels in 2015 and flew the
missioned in 2013. Lee participated in an all female flyover squadron’s KC-130, “Fat Albert” logistics aircraft.
honoring the first female Navy jet pilot
Capt. Rosemary Mariner at
her funeral. While
Lee is the first

Left wing pilot, Lt. Amanda Lee, assigned to the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, prepares for takeoff prior to
a training flight over Naval Air Facility (NAF) El Centro. Lt. Amanda Lee is the squadron’s first woman F/A-18E/F demonstration pilot. (U.S.
Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Michael Russell/Released

12 The Mariner • 2023 SPRING Edition • Volume 66 • Issue 1

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