Photo: Major General Maggie Woodward. Baerbel Schmidt for TIMEAir Boss -- Time
Woodward entered the service after graduating from Arizona State University in 1982 and was soon piloting KC-135 tankers as they refueled fighters and bombers in midair during U.S. military action in Panama and the Balkans. She later ran tanker operations over Afghanistan and Iraq. Woodward racked up nearly 4,000 hours of flight time along the way and garnered a funky call sign: Swamp Witch. Today she is one of only 612 women — less than 5% — among the Air Force's 13,000 pilots. (Woodward is married to an Air Force one-star general, now retired; the couple has no children.)
In 2007 she became the first woman to run the 89th Airlift Wing — home to Air Force One and other VIP craft — at Andrews Air Force Base just outside the capital, where, other brass recall, she was popular and effective. "Successful general officers know how to take care of the troops and let the troops take care of the mission," says William Welser III, a retired lieutenant general who was once Woodward's commander. "Maggie certainly falls into that category."
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My Comment: Her call sign .... 'swamp witch' .... probably says a lot about her. But for a women to climb to such a high position in the air force and to be trusted with such a responsibility .... that also says a lot about her.
1 comment:
4000 hours doesn't strike me as a lot of flight time for someone from the tanker/airlift community.
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