First US air-to-air victory scored by a female pilot

A U.S. Navy fighter jet pilot became the first female to score an air-to-air kill while she was deployed to fight against the Houthis in the Red Sea, where the Iranian-backed group has battled American troops for more than half a year in an engagement tied to Israel’s war in Gaza.

The unnamed female pilot served in Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 32, known as the “Fighting Swordsmen,” and flew an F/A-18F Super Hornet, which she used to take down a Houthi drone, according to a Navy release.

Maj. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, who just retired from service last year, became the first female fighter pilot in the Air Force in 1993. The first Navy female carrier-based fighter pilot was Lt. Kara Hultgreen in 1994.

Also in 1994, Navy Lt. Kimberly “Face” Dyson became the first female fighter pilot to fly in a combat mission in an operation meant to enforce a no-fly zone over Iraq.

VFA 32 flew more than 3,000 combat hours and 1,500 combat missions, firing more than 20 air-to-air missiles against the Houthis in the Red Sea, where the rebel fighters have been threatening merchant ships with rockets and drones since late October, not long after war broke out between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The fighter squadron, based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., was part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group, which deployed to the Middle East in October to prevent a wider war from breaking out in the region following the Gaza war. The strike group recently left the Middle East.

Cmdr. Jason Hoch, commanding officer of VFA-32, said he was proud of the team working under “incredibly demanding conditions.”

“The success of the entire squadron over the past nine months is a testament to all the members of the command and their friends and family at home that support them,” Hoch said in a statement.

VFA-32 also led two of the seven self-defense strikes into Houthi-controlled territory of Yemen and fired off close to 20 precision-guided air-to-surface munitions to hit targets in the U.S. mission designed to cripple the rebel group from carrying out attacks on merchant ships.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group left the Middle East in June after nine months of operations, and just arrived back home in mid-July.

The Pentagon rotated the Navy sailors out and replaced them with the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.