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Society & Culture:Relationships
#29: U.S. Navy Helicopter Pilot on Crying After Work & Being Badass with Shelby D.
You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Shelby’s room that she shares with six other female pilots and an average college girl’s place full of Christmas lights, mermaid blankets, polaroid photos, and a projected white sheet to watch movies. Besides the fact that their room is all metal walls on a massive boat with a capacity of 5,000 people that are all serving in the U.S military on deployment in Japan.
Shelby blames the “Topgun” movie with Tom Cruise as well as her brothers for the inspiration to become a pilot. She was striving for flying jets in the military but scored only one point short on her qualifications and ended up flying in the rotary wing. She got deployed for her first mission in Japan just after graduation and her husband followed her.
She confesses that her primary motivation for going into the military was to prove to everyone else that she can do it. She wanted that special “Wow! You’re a female pilot in the U.S. military! That’s pretty badass!” reaction, and she got it. The praise, the wonder, the amazement. She had also gotten the amazingly hard challenges of such a tough job of always trying to blend in with the guys, the insane competition, the hard working hours off and on deployment, and the need to always strive to be better than everyone else. She confesses that she does cry after work.
Being a feminist in the classic sense of the word, she praises equal opportunities and rights, but she refuses to blend with the guys blindly. Certain differences can’t be ignored. She shares her regular day on the ship during deployment at sea where besides her regular flying duties she also manages her squadron of 29 sailors. On this episode we also talk about the dynamics of her husband being the military spouse, the harsh fate military women have where getting pregnant is not an option, and much more.
Join us for an incredible conversation with the badass girl on the block where Shelby shares her top tools & resources to keep her on track, including:
Check these out at www.girlskill.com/29
P. S. Sign up for the free, exclusive training from me on “The Lie of Female Success: How to Get Unstuck, Release Pressure & Stop Trying to Do It All” to find out:
Sign up at girlskill.com/webinar
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