Who is Lt. Amanda Lee? First Woman To Serve As Demonstration Pilot In The U.S Navy’s Blue Angels

Lt Amanda Lee will be the first woman to fly a F/A-18E/F for the Blue Angels- an aerobatic flight demonstration Squadron formed in 1946. Many women have served the team since its formation but Lt. Lee would be the first woman ever to serve in the capacity of a demonstration pilot.

On Monday, July 18, the demonstration squadron named six new officers including a C-130J Super Hercules pilot, an events coordinator, an aviation maintenance officer, a flight surgeon and two F/A-18E/F Super Hornet pilots to join the team for the 2023 air show season. The selected 2023 officers respectively include Marine Corps Capt. Samuel Petko, Lt. Cmdr. Brian Vaught, Lt. Cmdr. Greg Jones, Lt. Philippe Warren, Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Zimmerman and Lt. Amanda Lee.

After a rigorous five-month training programme, Lt. Lee whose call sign is “Stalin” will fly the Super Hornet for the established team.

About Lt. Lee

Lt. Amanda Lee hails from Mounds View, Minnesota. She attended the University of Minnesota while working at UPS. After graduating from Recruit Training Command in Illinois (2007), Lt. Lee was selected for the Seamen-to-Admiral Commissioning Program owing to her experience as an aviation electronics technician. Lee was commissioned in August 2013 and in the same year she completed a degree in Biochemistry from Old Dominion University. By April 2016, she was designated as a naval aviator.

Lee was also one of the nine female pilots to pay homage to the Late Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner in a flyover as part of her funeral service. She is greatly inspired by Captain Mariner and spoke highly of her as a torchbearer of female aviation.

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Lee is the first demonstration pilot for the Blue Angels but Marine Maj. Katie Higgins was the first woman to fly in formation with the squadron. She flew a C-130 Fat Albert Transport Plane from 2014 to 2016.

Lt. Amanda Lee is currently serving the “Gladiators” of Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106) located in Naval Air Station, Oceana, Virginia.