{"id":4700,"date":"2018-01-26T07:43:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T15:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=4700"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:53","slug":"pilots-bookshelf-review-shoot-like-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/pilots-bookshelf-review-shoot-like-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pilot’s Bookshelf: Review of “Shoot Like a Girl”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Written in January, 2018<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d ever experienced a \u201cdriveway moment\u201d until the day I was listening to an interview with Mary Jennings Hegar, the author of \u201cShoot Like a Girl\u201d.\u00a0 I was listening to NPR[1]<\/a>.\u00a0 I found the story of this woman so interesting that I parked outside my house and listened until the interview was over.\u00a0 I immediately ordered a copy of her book and I was not disappointed.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/h3>\n

I think that Ms Hegar was slightly ahead of her time.\u00a0 The story of her experience both in the man\u2019s world of military aviation and in her rescue from a firefight and the flight she made, standing on the skids while firing at the enemy and hanging on to the helicopter carrying her from her own wreck was absolutely compelling.\u00a0 It preceded the \u201cMe, too\u201d movement by a year or so, but is certainly just as meaningful. \u00a0And Ms. Hegar not only has \u201cskin in the game\u201d, but she has blood as well.<\/h3>\n

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I\u2019ve always been fascinated by this genre. An incident takes place in seconds, yet is related in a book-length re-telling.\u00a0 Capt.\u00a0 \u201cSully\u201d Sullenberger\u2019s relating of his bird strike and subsequent ditching of an airliner in the Hudson River is one of the best examples of this phenomenon, but Mary Jennings Hegar\u2019s story is equally riveting.<\/h3>\n

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Of primary importance in this story is the fact that Ms. Hegar had not only to fight the enemy in the Middle East, but she also had to fight the forces of sexism in this country, not only during her quest to become a helicopter pilot but also to simply operate and thrive in the U.S. Military.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t make a big thing about that, but anyone who thinks can not only hear what she has to say, but can also read between the lines and appreciate her struggle.<\/h3>\n

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Don\u2019t let the title of this book fool you.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually a quote from a shooting instructor, who offered her encouragement by pointing out some of his own observations, including that women tend to shoot extremely well and why.\u00a0 His words sure sounded familiar to me, as some of the reasons he quoted, mainly the lack of ego involvement among female applicants, are some that I have found as a teacher of advanced flying.<\/h3>\n

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We are always trying to come up with a good, appropriate subtitle for everything we write.\u00a0 Perhaps the subtitle of \u201cShoot like a Girl\u201d says it best: \u201cOne woman\u2019s dramatic fight in Afghanistan and on the home front\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said it before of other works, and I\u2019ll say it again, especially about this account:\u00a0 It belongs on every flier\u2019s bookshelf.\u00a0 Regardless of your sex or your feelings about the issue, this is a great book for fliers\u2026 and for those who thirst for true equality.<\/h3>\n

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\u201cShoot like a Girl\u201d is available from Amazon, or many other suppliers.\u00a0 The jacket says that it will soon be a motion picture.\u00a0 I hope that picture does this story justice.<\/h3>\n

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Brian Lansburgh<\/h3>\n

[1]<\/a> A link to NPR\u2019s show, \u201cFresh Air\u201d with Terry Gross is at https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/03\/02\/517944956\/a-purple-heart-warrior-takes-aim-at-military-inequality-in-shoot-like-a-girl\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how long it will be available, but if you can get it, you\u2019ll be able to listen to the same interview that caught my imagination.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d ever experienced a \u201cdriveway moment\u201d until the day I was listening to an interview with Mary Jennings Hegar, the author of \u201cShoot Like a Girl\u201d.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[11,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}