The Air Force's Black Pilot State of the Union

This is an excerpt from the chapter entitled: "What About the Black Women?"

Brigadier General Dana N. Nelson

Brig. Gen. Nelson is the first black female USAFA graduate to earn the rank of general officer. She is a Reservist and a pilot, which makes her the highest-ranking black female pilot on active duty or in the Reserves. Brig. Gen. Nelson graduated from USAFA in 1990. While I applaud Brig. Gen. Nelson’s accomplishments, her “first” is a ringing indictment of the Air Force’s inability to retain and promote its talent.

“First Officer Nelson was the first African American female pilot hired by Delta Air Lines in January 2001. She was initially based in Orlando, flying the Boeing 737-200 (as noted above) for Delta Express. In September 2001 she transferred to Atlanta to fly the Boeing 757. She is currently flying the Boeing 757/767 based in New York.”

In previous books, I have railed on the argument that we need to recruit more talented minorities if we are to create true diversity among the Air Force’s senior leaders. Stop it. Stop the madness. The Air Force needs to take better care of the talent that it already has. What organization could point to a low success rate of developing minorities from within and get away with blaming it on the national talent pool, year after year, decade after decade?

The first women graduated from USAFA in 1980. Since then:

-  Janet Wolfenbarger graduated in 1980 and became the first female (white) Air Force four-star

-  Susan K. Mashiko graduated in 1980 and became the first female USAFA grad of Japanese descent to be promoted to Flag/General Officer (two-star)

-  Sharon K. Dunbar graduated in 1982 and became the first female USAFA grad of Korean descent to be promoted to Flag/General Officer (two-star)

-  Jacqueline D. Van Ovost graduated in 1988 and is the second female (w hite) USAFA graduate to earn four-star rank

-  Gail Colvin was the only one of three black females from the class of 1980 to become a career Air Force officer, retiring as a full colonel with 30 years of service. In 2020 she became the first black female to receive the prestigious USAFA Association of Graduates Distinguished Graduate Award. Of the previous 50 recipients, she is the 2nd female to receive the award. Former Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, USAFA c/o ’82, was the 1st.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion can’t be measured in slogans, campaigns, and speeches. It must be measured in faces and names. Those are the only valid results. Those are the measures of success used for non-African Americans. Are we saying that in the history of black women at the Air Force Academy that there has not been one that thought the Air Force was worthy of an active-duty career and had the talent to make it to general officer?

I did not ask Brig. Gen. Nelson why she became a Reservist. I know that she loves her Reserve job, the influence it provides her, and the impact she makes. I also know that she enjoys her job as an airline pilot. It’s just hard to believe that out of all the black females that had the metal to graduate from the Academy that she is the only one that made it to this rank.