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News & Media Debrief

Debrief: Marine Capt. Katie Higgins

First female Blue Angels pilot

March 18, 2016
U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Katie Higgins is the Blue Angels’ first female pilot, but she didn’t do it alone. Women have performed support roles for the team since 1969 and have served as Marine Corps aviators since the 1990s, she noted. Higgins flies the team’s personnel and cargo hauler 'Fat Albert', which opens each airshow. “I love that we can demonstrate the capabilities of the C–130 to everyday Americans,” Higgins said. “People see it as a big airplane and they don’t know how versatile it is and how dynamic it is.”
Flight Training June 2016
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Who: Capt. Katie Higgins, C–130 pilot, Blue Angels demonstration team
Aircraft: Lockheed C–130 Hercules, aka Fat Albert
Hours: Close to 1,300
Certificates and ratings: Private, single- and multiengine land, instrument
Extra: Higgins was chosen to join the team beginning in the 2014 season. Her stint concludes at the end of the 2016 airshow season.

Started in aviation…My grandfathers were in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and my father was a Navy aviator who flew F/A–18s.

Early challenges…[In Marine Corps flight school] I failed two flights. I was so worried I was going to get kicked out of flight school. I was having a hard time landing the airplane in crosswinds. Through practice, perseverance, and good instructors, I succeeded. I can land Fat Albert in strong crosswinds.

Favorite aviation activity…Flying a C–130 three to five feet down the runway during our takeoff maneuver because nobody else does that anywhere else with a C–130 in the whole world. If I flew this airplane in the fleet like this, I would get my wings taken away.

Favorite airplane…I absolutely love the C–130 and I would never give it up and never change it, but I love the T–44. That was my multiengine trainer.

Advice for students…I have a phrase I always say: “Calm seas don’t make a skilled sailor.” It’s not the easy times in your life; it’s not the smooth sailing that shapes you as a person. It’s obstacles and rough patches. They shaped me as a Marine, so if you struggle and overcome those things, you come out a better person for it.

Nineteen women perform various support roles within the Blue Angels team.

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