CityView Magazine

planes for the U.S. Air Force. “I always wanted to do something F different,” she says. It must be said that the C-130 is quite large, and that Capt. Blair is quite small. But in her hands, the transport plane is agile. She has brought it onto runways that aren’t even runways, just patches of land in remote parts of Iraq and Af- ghanistan. She has taxied in and out of Baghdad too many times to count. Sometimes she’s hauling gear, other times people, including the president of Iraq. But the best assignment, she says, is flying soldiers and airmen who are on their way home. For a soldier on the other side of a 15-month deployment, “I’m the first person they see.” But sometimes they’re surprised to see her. Once, on a stopover, Blair made a quick dash from the plane to the clos- est bathroom (occupational hazard), and a group of soldiers saw her. “I think that’s the pilot,” one of them said, but their commander cracked, “No, it’s not. That’s a girl.” She returned and politely asked him, “I am the pilot. Do you want a ride?” As of Sept. 30, 2006, the Defense De- partment estimated that women in the military made up almost 15 percent of the total active force. The Air Force had the highest percentage. Even so, Blair estimates that she is one of a half-dozen female fliers in an operational group of 200. They have the same expectations as their male counterparts. In fact, due to deployments, Blair has missed Christ- mas at home for the past four years. This year will be different. She and PilotPilot Capt. Felicia Blair her husband, Colin, were married in August; this will be their first Christ- mas as a married couple. She flies C-130s for the Air Force. He flies them for the Navy. She’s stationed at Pope Air Force Base. He’s stationed in Virginia. Plans are in the works to find stations closer together, something that might ground flying for awhile. But most pilots already divide their time between the cockpit and the office. Blair isn’t worried. “Once a pilot,” she says, “always a pilot.”CV CityViewNC.com | 37 lying came before driving. Felicia Blair begged her father for flying lessons be- fore she even had a driver’s license. Back then, she flew for fun; now she flies cargo

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