February 3, 2019: Saturday afternoon, in the skies over Maynardville, Tenn., four F/A-18E/F Super Hornets streaked by in close formation, one jet peeling off and climbing into the heavens in an aerial salute to a fallen naval aviator. According to the Navy, it was the first time the “missing man” formation will be flown entirely by women.

The flyover honored retired Capt. Rosemary Bryant Mariner, a pioneering pilot who died Jan. 24. One of the first six women to earn Navy wings, in 1974, she pushed back against ingrained skepticism within the fleet to become the Navy’s first female jet pilot to fly front-line light attack aircraft, one of the first women to serve aboard a Navy warship and the first woman to command a military aviation squadron.

Read more: A ‘Missing Man’ Formation Flown by Women, for a Woman (www.washingtonpost.com)

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