U.S. Navy Lt. Amanda Lee has been selected as the first female jet pilot to join the Navy's elite Blue Angels flight demonstration team, according to the Navy.
Lee, of Mounds View, Minnesota, is an F/A-18 pilot stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia, where she is currently assigned to the "Gladiators" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106. She graduated from Old Dominion University in Richmond, Virginia, in 2013.
While she will become the first flight demonstration pilot to fly the Blue Angels' F/A-18 demonstration aircraft, she is not the team's first female pilot. In 2015, Marine Major Katie Cook flew the Blue Angels' KC-130 logistics aircraft known as "Fat Albert."
Lee's selection to the Blue Angels was announced Monday in a Facebook post that announced the selection of six new officers who would join the team for the upcoming 2023 season.
While her selection is a first for the Navy's demonstration team, the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds flight demonstration team has had six female pilots fly the team's F-16 fighters since the first female pilot was selected to join the team in 2005.