 My name is Maddie Swigel and I'm the U.S. Navy's first black female tactical jet pilot. I don't think a goal in my life is to necessarily be the first at anything that was never something that I set out to do. It was just something that I was interested in and I found out later. My parents raised me and they told me that I could be whatever I wanted to be. We would go see the blue ankles when they were in town. I don't remember specifically how old I was, but they were just so cool. I love them. Yeah, I just love the fast planes. To show up here at this level, you need to be a top performer and then you have to continue to perform while you're here. These are the best pilots in the world that are trained here. They're very best. Oh, I was super excited, but also really intimidated. I remember driving down here for the first time and it just seemed really daunting. It was crazy to be in such a higher performance aircraft. I was really excited on takeoff, like feeling the exhilaration and getting thrown back in the seat a little bit. That was awesome. It's fun because it is difficult at the same time. I know that I had to work to get it to behave, and it took a lot of fighting the aircraft and figuring out how it was going to perform. Yeah, that was exciting. It's really rewarding to have the plane do whatever you want it to do and that takes time and you definitely notice yourself improving. Looking back, it's amazing to think about where I started and I'd never been in an airplane before, so it's just one step at a time and it's really cool to think of all the things that I've done now, which I never thought that I'd be able to do. It takes long hours, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and commitment to excellence day in and day out. Every instructor here knows that we have a very high standard. The standard doesn't change. That is to be excellent in everything that you do. To be just like all of her fellow wingies met that standard of excellence, and they're going to go out and make all of us great proud. After three years, that was a long journey and there were times when I didn't think that I would make it, so that was kind of scary, but I'm glad that I kept pushing and we're here and I get to continue. I am really honored that I get to wear the wings and get to fly planes and call myself a pilot. I've been in the Navy almost 20 years and served with people from all races, colors, creeds, vendors, and it was surprising to hear that she could be a pioneer, and once it was confirmed it was like, well, this is really exciting, and this was probably with her only having about three flights remaining in the syllabus. So I think that representation is important because we are a very diverse nation, so I would like everyone to believe that they can achieve whatever they want to do. This profession is open to anybody with the drive and motivation to put in the work and the sacrifice that comes along with it. I hope that it inspires far more women and people of all kinds of diverse backgrounds to look at this as a great career choice, and it doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, where you came from, once we have the uniform on, we're all on the same team and we all are trying to accomplish the same mission. I guess I hope that my legacy will be that there will be a lot of other women and minority women and just different faces that come forward and at least give the pipeline a shot, you know, like be encouraged and know that they have all the tools that they need and, you know, follow their dreams. There's always going to be a first at some point, and here it is in 2020. She's it. The U.S. Navy's first black female tactical jet aviator. It may be a long time coming, but here she is, and there's going to be more to follow now.