One simple pronoun
At the very end of this NY Times article about a change in flight time policies for pilots of unmanned Air Force planes, there’s a word that should go unnoticed, but that I couldn’t help but note. Without fanfare, the second to last paragraph begins: “One of the most respected Predator pilots of the Afghan war is an officer who so mastered the aircraft that she was chosen to fly the super-secret C.I.A.missions in which a new, armed Predator tracked Taliban and Qaeda leadership and then launched Hellfire anti-tank missiles.” She. She flew the plane. That the writer doesn’t feel it necessary to point out anything unusual about the pilot being a women is a small victory for women in the military. Combat aviation was opened to women only in 1993 and only one percent of jet fighter pilots are female. Unmanned reconnaissance planes may not have fallen into the combat category, but I think shooting missiles certainly should count.