Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner died on Thursday , January 24 after living with ovarian genus Cancer for five days . The military drawing card made history in her 65 - yr lifetime by becoming the first woman to fly a tactical fighter aircraft jet , one of the first six women to earn their Navy pilot annex , and the first char to overlook an air squadron . Her funeral service in Maynardville , Tennessee will mark off another milepost : The Navy project to honor her with a fly-by of all women pilots , a first in the subdivision ’s history , NBC Newsreports .
Mariner was born in 1953 , at a meter when char were n’t allowed to be military pilots . Despite the principle , she stargaze of one day flying plane for her country , and she made sure she ’d be the perfect campaigner for the job if the opportunity ever arose . By age 17 , she had obtained her secret pilot ’s permit , and by 19 , she ’d clear her aeronautics grade from Purdue University . The next year , the Navy began accept cleaning woman into its flight computer program , and Mariner was among the first class of female U.S. naval aeronaut .
Not only was she the first womanhood to pilot a paladin reverse lightning and overlook other pilots , but she also became president of the Women Military Aviators organization in the other 1990s and fought to roll back armed combat restriction on women in the military .
On Saturday , February 2 , the Navy will honor the later captain with a " missing valet de chambre flyover"—a ceremony reserved for prominent military member and political figures . During the service , women aviatorsfrom squadron base at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia will fly four F / A-18E / F Super Hornets in formation , culminating with one sheet ascending vertically forth from the radical .
Though the later captain ’s married man , move back Navy air force officer Tommy Mariner , told NBC that Rosemary would n’t have asked for an all - distaff flyover , he said it ’s rattling that the Navy now has enough women members to make that possible .
[ h / tNBC News ]
