Studer Community Institute

Barrier-breaking aviator: Male pilots ‘incorrectly presumed’ pilot slots should go to men

March 27, 2015
/ Louis Cooper
/ community-dashboard

When Brenda Robinson broke the glass ceiling, she used an airplane to do it. Robinson was the first African American woman to become a Navy pilot, receiving her wings of gold in Pensacola in 1980. She’s returning to the Cradle of Navy Aviation on Saturday as part of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation’s Discovery Saturday series and in recognition of March as Women’s History Month. The talk starts at 10 a.m. at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station. The event is free and open to the public. “This is actually the kind of talk I give to elementary school kids. If an elementary kid can understand what I am saying, then I know everyone of all ages – including adults – will get it,” said Robinson, 58, who now lives in Charlotte, NC, and works as a motivational speaker with her firm, Successful Attitudes. “A lot of it is leadership and self-confidence. These are the things I did not grow up with and did not have outside of my own little circle of friends and family. When you get out into the world, all of a sudden it’s a little bit more scary. I love being able to tell people, ‘This is really easy. This is what you need to do.’ I didn’t get it figured out until I was in my mid 30s.” Shelley Ragsdale, marking director for the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, said Robinson will also speak to the students at the National Flight Academy. “The Naval Aviation Museum Foundation’s mission is to honor the past and inspire the future, and Brenda nails both,” Ragsdale said. “We invited Brenda to speak at our Discovery Saturday program during Women’s History Month so she could share her story of her pioneering spirit and accomplishments as the first black female to earn her wings of gold as a naval aviator.” Robinson’s career led her to fly at least 11 different models of planes. She was stationed in Guam as an instructor, as well as Whiting Field Naval Air Station in Milton, owning a home in Pace. She flew VIPs in passenger jets out of Washington D.C. She was stationed in San Diego when her unit was mobilized for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, moving first to Germany and then to the United Arab Emirates. She left active duty in 1991 for the Individual Ready Reserve. She formally retired in 2001 as a lieutenant commander. After active duty, she flew with American Airlines for 17 years. Here are some of Robinson’s thoughts on her career as a pilot. Q: Did you have aviators or members of the military in your family – how did you decide to become a military pilot? A: No one in my family was interested in aviation. I figured out aviation was a cool thing because in the ‘60s and ‘70s, you would get dressed up in your Sunday best just to go to the airport to pick someone up or to drop them off. You didn’t put on jeans or something as gauche as that to go to the airport I didn’t really think about being a pilot. What else could we do? You went up the stairs and turned right and you could be a flight attendant, or you could go up the stairs and turn left, and you could be a pilot. I didn’t have anybody saying you should turn left and be a pilot. That actually had to evolve by itself. When I started college, I actually started flying. Because I was a Dowling College graduate with an aeronautics degree, we were privileged to have all of the services come to visit our college. Since I was not planning on going into the military, it was kind of a wasted meeting, in my opinion. But I came away knowing either the Navy or the Air Force was going to be it. The Navy said, ‘We’re going to fly you to Pensacola, show you our Aviation Officer Candidate School.’ … They were the only ones who offered that to me. I was one of 10 women in the nation selected that year to do that. I was just happy this was an option. A couple years before that it would not have been an option because I’m a girl.” Q: As an African American woman pilot, which was the bigger obstacle – race or gender? A: Being a female was by far the biggest problem. I joke about it now because it was just so silly, but they were already overwhelmed by the situation of minorities. When they saw women, that was something new to them and they were very upset about that because women were now taking slots that they incorrectly presumed should only go to their fellow male aviators. We had to listen to all the problems they thought were going to come out of the fact that women were now flying airplanes. I obviously ignored them, because I was busy working hard. Q: How did having breast cancer impact your career? A: When I got my first diagnosis in ‘92 I had just started working for American Airlines and I found some lumps. … Radiation treatment requires Monday through Friday, you’re at the doctor’s office. … I flew all-nighters and every weekend. … I had to kind of fight with them sometimes to get that schedule. In 2003, I found more lumps (and needed chemotherapy). I was a little worried about whether I was going to be able to get back in the cockpit. Chemotherapy really knocks you down. … I was always thinking about what I was going to do next. I wasn’t thinking about, ‘Oh, this is the end of the world, and I should start making arrangements.’ All I could think was, ‘Please let me qualify to get back to work.’ I had a little simulator program on my computer, and I practiced all of the emergencies I could think of on a 767. When I finally did get the opportunity, the FAA said I was good to go. Q: You lived in Pensacola during training in the late 1970s and then in Pace in the mid 1980s as an instructor at Whiting Field. What memories do you have of our area? A: I miss Trader Jon. He was like the most important person ever. It just breaks my heart that he is not there for me to go visit because I would go visit him as soon as I landed if he were still alive. When I was there, most of them saw me as the first black woman who had ever come through. They said, ‘She’s not coming back.’ Trader Jon looked at me and he said, ‘She’s going places, and she’s coming back.’ We struck up a really great friendship. I was sitting at home one time and I didn’t even know he had my phone number. He called me on the phone and said, “Brenda, this is Trader. I’ve got an astronaut coming to town. You need to get down here.” I lived in Pace and I jumped in my car to head to Pensacola. I thought it was so awesome that he would think of me.

Back to Blogs

Barrier-breaking aviator: Male pilots ‘incorrectly presumed’ pilot slots should go to men

Recent Posts