Shoot Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar

My dad was an entitled, little rich boy who got into drugs and was very physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive. You write, “I credit a lot of my life’s success to my mother’s courage in getting us away from my biological father.” Talk us through your childhood-and how it affected your dream? Nobody ever said, “Girls can’t do that.” And as I got older, in high school, I started pushing toward that dream. No, that’s the beauty of the way that I was raised. It was a good description of who I was, at heart and soul. If you couple that with being raised with a real sense of duty and patriotism, then being a military combat pilot made sense. I was also always a bit of an adrenaline junkie. So helicopters were a natural fit for me. I don’t want the FAA telling me what altitude to fly at. It’s because of the rebel in me that doesn’t like rules. A lot of people ask why I don’t fly for the airlines now. I wanted to be a combat helicopter pilot after seeing Han Solo in Star Wars. I never dreamed to be a fighter pilot, because those guys are jerks.

When-and why-did your dream of flying combat helicopters begin?

When National Geographic caught up with Hegar by phone at her home in Austin, Texas, the Purple Heart recipient explained why she sued the Pentagon, how she would never have become a pilot if her mother had not left an abusive husband, and how, in 2009, in Afghanistan, everything she had prepared for came together when her chopper was hit by the Taliban. In Shoot Like A Girl, MJ takes the reader on a dramatic journey through her military career: an inspiring, humorous, and thrilling true story of a brave, high-spirited, and unforgettable woman who has spent much of her life ready to sacrifice everything for her country, her fellow man, and her sense of justice.Please be respectful of copyright. But it was on American soil that Hegar would embark on her greatest challenge- to eliminate the military’s Ground Combat Exclusion Policy, which kept female armed service members from officially serving in combat roles despite their long-standing record of doing so with honor. Air Force, MJ Hegar was selected for pilot training by the Air National Guard, finished at the top of her class, then served three tours in Afghanistan, flying combat search-and-rescue missions, culminating in a harrowing rescue attempt that would earn MJ the Purple Heart as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device. But soon she would face a new battle: to give women who serve on the front lines the credit they deserve.Īfter being commissioned into the U.S. Despite being wounded, she continued to fight and saved the lives of her crew and their patients.

On July 29, 2009, Air National Guard major Mary Jennings ‘MJ’ Hegar was shot down while on a Medevac mission on her third tour in Afghanistan.

Shoot Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar