Jeannie Marie Leavitt: Fighter Pilot and Air Force Major General

When the filmmakers of the 2019 Captain Marvel movie were looking for a real-life inspiration for the female superhero of their movie, they found it in Jeannie Leavitt, the first woman commander of the United States Air Force’s storied 57th Wing. The movie producers were struck by the parallels between Leavitt and the fictional character of Carol Danvers, who transforms into Captain Marvel. They both began their careers as Air Force pilots, turning their skills and strengths into symbols of female empowerment. After spending time with Leavitt and her pilots at Nevis Air Force Base in Nevada, actress Brie Larson who portrayed Captain Marvel was awed by how “badass” they were.

Leavitt’s career may seem like a Hollywood fantasy, but the truth is it was built on decades of hard work as she rose through the ranks of the military.  When she retired as a two-star general in 2023, she left a legacy of firsts. Besides being the first American woman to pilot a combat plane, she was the first woman to graduate from the fighter program of the Air Force Weapons School and the first woman to command a fighter unit. A superstar in the Air Force, she has proven time and again that women can take on military roles in peacetime and war that were filled previously only by men. She logged more than 3,000 hours in the cockpit of fighter jets. Three hundred hours were on missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Leavitt was born in 1967 to James and Patricia Flynn, the third of their four girls. Growing up in suburban St. Louis, there was nothing Little Women-ish about the Flynn girls’ childhood. They played all kinds of sports, backpacked, and camped in the woods and were thoroughly competitive with each other in games. Even though she wasn’t the oldest, Leavitt was often the leader.

In a 1993 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, her older sister Patti recalls how fearless Leavitt could be, tramping ahead of the others on those camping trips, undaunted by spiders, rocks, and obstacles.  Leavitt also loved animals and had a passion for riding horses. At 16, she bought and broke a black stallion that no one had been able to tame and ride.  As a teenager, she was unafraid of challenges and already a legend in her family.

Despite the fact that her parents were on opposite sides of the fence about flying, Leavitt also found time to fall in love with airplanes. Her father, James Flynn, was a member of the National Guard and he took her and the family to local airshows.  From the beginning she was awestruck.

 “I loved to watch airplanes flying. I was fascinated…I wanted to fly in any airplane and never had the chance growing up,” she said in a 2019 interview with the National Air and Space Museum. Because her mother, Patricia, a schoolteacher was terrified of flying, Leavitt’s first experience on an airplane didn’t happen until she was 18, when she flew to New Mexico to visit an uncle.

Leavitt’s passion for airplanes only grew stronger when she went to college. In 1990, she graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in aerospace engineering. During the work-study component of the program, she got several chances to fly in the back seat of F16 jets. The speed, the power and the powerful engines spoke to her. She decided she wanted to fly fighter jets-- and the only way possible was by joining the military. Leavitt was accepted into the Reserved Officers Training Program (ROTC) program at UT. In exchange for committing to 10 years of military service, she would become a pilot and learn to fly.  But she would have to wait a year after getting her undergraduate degree before the training could begin.

She spent that year taking flying lessons while she was enrolled in a fast-track fellowship program at Stanford University. In Dec. 1991, she graduated with a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics, the first of four masters degrees she would earn over her career. A month later, she was at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, one of less than a handful of women in the flight training class.

Years later, she recalled feeling a bit nervous.

 “I remember getting into pilot training. Some people had far more hours than I did, because (although) I had my private pilot’s license, I couldn’t afford any flight time,” she said. “Some of these people had instrument ratings, some people were certified flying instructors—CFI’s, and so I was a little intimidated… just because I felt very far behind some of my classmates.”

With characteristic determination, Leavitt doubled down and “worked very hard,” to catch up. One year later, in Jan. 1993, she graduated at the top of her class, and as the “top gun,” she was the first pilot to choose the planes she wanted to fly. It was no secret she loved the F15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, then the latest combat plane in the Air Force. But publicly choosing it at a time when combat was still off limits to women would be controversial and seen as an act of defiance.

It’s hard to believe now, but as recently as thirty years ago, women were banned from active military duty in the American armed forces. Even though women have been on the frontlines since World War II in significant numbers-- not only as ambulance drivers, nurses and medics, but also as ammunition specialists, helicopter pilots and truck drivers delivering supplies to field bases. Women also  commanded large units in combat service support areas. More than 37,000 women served successfully during the Gulf War, one of the factors that resulted in the repeal of the exclusion act in December, 1991.

Despite the repeal of the law prohibiting women from active duty, there was pushback from both inside and outside the military. While a presidential commission studied the pros and cons and the impact of women in combat, the Defense Department refused to change its policy. Among those in the “nay” camp was Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak who testified he would rather be in a cockpit with a less qualified man than a woman.

“I got a lot of unsolicited advice,” Leavitt said.  Commanding officers, instructors and fellow cadets cautioned her to opt for another type of plane. By choosing a jet she wasn’t allowed to fly, they said, she would be seen as a rebel, a troublemaker even before she started her military career.

 “I didn’t know if it would be weeks, months, or years. But at some point in time, that law was going to change,” Leavitt told an interviewer at the National Space and Air Museum. “And I didn’t want people to say: well, did you ever ask?”

Four months later, her gamble paid off. On April 28, 1993, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced that the combat exclusion policy would be lifted from all aviation roles except for special operation units. Leavitt went on to combat train for a year at Holloman AFB in New Mexico and Luke AFB in Arizona.

After her missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Leavitt continued to be a pioneer and role model for generations of women. She has commanded four different fighter squadrons and served as assistant to the Secretary of Defense. She has won numerous medals for courage and bravery in combat, including the Bronze Star, Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal and Air Force Commendation Medal.

In 2016, she was promoted to Brigadier General and later that year assumed command of the 57th Wing at Nellis AFB, Nevada. In 2018, she became commander of all Air Force Recruiting at Randolph AFB in San Antonio.  And in her final assignment, as Major General, she was commander of Air Force Safety at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. In 2023, Leavitt retired as a two-star major general.

By Alice Look

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