Lesson 188:
Patricia White
An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 05/23/2025
Prelude | 184 | 185 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | 192 | Email |
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An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 05/23/2025
Prelude | 184 | 185 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | 192 | Email |
|---|
Another conspicuously-absent biography that is no longer locatable on the usual .mil addresses; today we take a brief look at the remarkable achievements of Patricia ("Pat") White: not only the first Black woman Air Force Academy graduate who would then go on to complete pilot training, but in the bargain to also be the first Black woman to graduate from Vance Air Force Base's famed pilot training program (1987). A Gulf War veteran, White is today a 787 pilot for United Airlines.
Read some inspiring first-person accolades by White's cousin, Valerie Lawson, who now also aspires to be a pilot: https://www.ethelwalker.org/middle-school-student-achieves-her-dream-of-flying/
This one's been pretty thoroughly scrubbed, folks --even the mighty Wayback Machine isn't returning a whole lot:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.aetc.af.mil/News/Article/3509976/patricia-white-vances-first-black-female-pilot-training-graduate/*
Anyone have better sources/info? Let me know what you find. Ambitious girls like Valerie Lawson deserve to know more.
Next lesson - Lesson 189: Sergeant Henry Johnson (WWI)