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SECOND WOMAN TO QUALIFY AS F-14 PILOT DIES IN CRASH
In July, two women aviators, Lt. Carey Lohrenz and Lt. Kara S. Hultgreen qualified to fly the F-14 from an aircraft carrier. On October 25, Hultgreen died when her plane crashed into the ocean while she was attempting a landing aboard USS Abraham Lincoln The Navy recovered her body and is attempting to recover the plane. The operation is considered a "challenging salvage" because the plane is 3,800 feet below the surface; the Navy's first two attempts to bring it up failed.
Critics of women in combat were quick to suggest that Hultgreen herself was responsible and her accident was proof that lifting the restrictions on women flyers was bad policy. Some went so far as to send out false information in anonymous phone calls and faxes purporting to prove that Hultgreen was unqualified and received special treatment by a politically correct Navy. In fact, Hultgreen ranked third out of seven flyers in her class, all of whom qualified.
A tribute to Lt. Hultgreen by CDR Trish Beckman, president of Women Military Aviators, appears in the Letters section below. CDR Beckman has also...