Air Force Capt. Madeline Atkinson of the thirty sixth Expeditionary Airlift Squadron speaks with a Bangladesh Air Force officer throughout the Exercise Cope South 2022 opening ceremony at BAF Base Bangabandhu, Bangladesh, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Christopher Hubenthal/U.S. Air Force)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan – Capt. Madeline Atkinson by no means felt that being a lady interfered together with her lifelong dream of turning into an Air Force pilot, she instructed Stars and Stripes lately.
Her mom, Pamela Atkinson, a Girl Scout chief, all the time inspired her to push for her goals, Atkinson stated by telephone Thursday.
“My mom was a really strong and a really big influence in my life and instilled in me that, ‘Hey, you’re not different or anything, because you’re a woman; you’re the same,’ Atkinson said. “And these opportunities are all in front of you.”
Atkinson, 29, a C-130J Super Hercules teacher pilot and chief of coaching for the 36th Airlift Squadron, took her expertise to Bangladesh in February as the squadron mission commander for the weeklong Cope South 2022 train.
She and squadron operations director Lt. Col. Kira Coffey, the detachment commander, labored with two of the first women in the Bangladesh Air Force and two of the first to fly the Super Hercules. Women weren’t permitted to change into military pilots in that nation till 2014.
“The best thing about meeting them was that Col. Coffey and I were saying to them, ‘You guys are awesome; you’re leaders in your community,’” Atkinson stated. “And they were telling us how much they look up to us. I’m not one to usually get emotional about that stuff, but I thought that was pretty awesome, that they were looking up to us, while we were looking to them.”
Coffey loved working with the trailblazing Bangladeshi women, she stated. Their pilots have been impressed by seeing U.S. women aviators in management positions, she stated Tuesday in an e-mail from the 374th Airlift Wing.
“In return, it was heartwarming and inspiring for me to be able to meet women who were just beginning on a trailblazing journey, knowing that it won’t be easy, but that it will be rewarding,” Coffey stated. “That was probably the coolest part of a very cool experience for me overall.”
Air Force Lt. Col. Kira Coffey, thirty sixth Expeditionary Airlift Squadron commander, speaks at the opening ceremony for Exercise Cope South 2022 at BAF Base Bangabandhu, Bangladesh, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Christopher Hubenthal/U.S. Air Force)
Atkinson started her journey to the pilot’s seat at age 8, when the concept of flight first intrigued her, she stated. Women in the United States have been first allowed to enter military pilot coaching 17 years earlier than she was born.
“I liked the idea of kind of getting to see a different perspective of the world, from above, that has always been really fascinating to me,” she stated.
By weight of numbers alone, Atkinson confronted an uphill slog. Of the 329,597 energetic obligation service members in the Air Force in February, 960 of them are women pilots, or about 1/3rd of 1% of Air Force personnel, in response to the Air Force’s Personnel Center.
A local of San Anselmo, Calif., Atkinson graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2014. Women have been outnumbered there by about 4 to 1, she stated.
“When it came time to apply for the academy, I recognized that I would be definitely outnumbered,” Atkinson stated. “For each class, there’s approximately 1,000 students in each class, and there’s only about 200 girls.”
That ratio apparently improved over the previous eight years. The class of 2025, which entered the academy final yr, included 325 women and 768 males, a ratio of about 2.4 to 1, in response to the academy’s class profile.
Atkinson stated she by no means felt handicapped or discriminated towards at the academy due to her gender.
“I didn’t feel like when I was there it was the factor on how I was treated or my performance,” Atkinson stated. “Yes, I recognize that most people in my squadron or in my classes were guys and usually I was one of the only girls in the class, but I never felt ostracized, that I was ‘different’ or that it was a big deal that I was a girl.”
The lopsided ratio of males to women in the military is steadily altering as a consequence of rising adjustments in societal norms, she stated.
“I think it’s a cultural thing,” she stated. “I think that in the history of humanity, it’s usually been men that are in the military. So, as our society develops, and it becomes a more normal for women and men doing the same jobs, you’re going to see more and more women being involved in the military.”
@KellyA_Stripes
