The Blue Guidon
The Newsletter of Andover and the Military Spring 2025
A Look Back: Opening the Cockpit to Women Pilots in the 1970s
By Col. Edward H. Parker Jr. ’56, MD, USAF (Ret.)
Women were not permitted by Congress to become pilots in the U.S. Air Force until 1976. My involvement with the change to allow women pilots started in 1975 when I was assigned as the chief of aerospace medicine for Air Training Command (ATC), with headquarters at Randolph AFB adjacent to San Antonio, Texas. ATC was the command responsible for pilot and navigator training. There was considerable resistance to allowing women pilots in the Air Force. The resistance that I personally faced was letters sent to my boss, a brigadier general, saying that it was not safe to have women fly high-performance airplanes let alone fly combat missions.
The U.S. Air Force Academy and other people inside and outside the Air Force objected to having women pilots. The pressure was not great to change the policy during the Vietnam War as we needed and trained about 4,000 pilots every year. After we no longer flew combat and support missions in Vietnam, our pilot training numbers dropped to 1,500 per year. With fewer flying slots available for training it meant not all Air Force Academy cadets who wanted to fly would get an opportunity after graduation.
I was fortunate to have support from active duty and retired pilots who were certain, as was I, that women could learn to fly—including combat missions. In fact, a retired general who was one of my patients said, “Doc, we could teach your grandmother to fly a barn door, but we are only allowed one year to do the training.”
With the help of a senior Air Force physician, I was able to form a committee to discuss the physical and medical issues related to women and flying. It was determined that the primary condition that would temporarily interfere with training would be if the student was pregnant. First, we had no data to tell us if pulling increased G-loads might induce labor. Second, once the woman’s uterus enlarged, she may have trouble getting into the airplane—and a large abdomen would block the use of the stick or yoke. Also, morning sickness would interfere with training.
Gen. John Roberts, commander of ATC, asked me to brief him on these issues. At the end of the briefing, he said I would not have any further
problems with the folks at the Air Force Academy. I asked him why. He pointed to the epaulette on one shoulder with four stars on it and said, “because four stars outranks three stars,” which was the rank of the superintendent of the Air Force Academy.
Ten women were in the first class to enter pilot training. All were trained at Williams AFB near Phoenix. They all graduated and received their silver wings in September 1977. Thirty-six men were in the same class. I was not involved in reviewing the records of the student cadets, nor was I involved in their medical care. One of the women was the first to qualify as an aircraft commander. Another commanded a C-141 four-engine jet transport. Another became an instructor pilot. The number of female pilots in the military has grown slowly but steadily. In early 2025, the Air Force reported 1,155 female pilots—approximately 7.6% of the total pilot population.
“The official inclusion of women as pilots in the U.S. military absolutely helped pave the way for my own journey as an F-18 pilot in the Navy. The perseverance and commitment to excellence of the early female trailblazers shattered so many barriers. I can tell you from experience that the jet does not care about gender—it cares about being on target, on time.”
—Cmdr. Rebecca Calder ’94, USN (Ret.) First female pilot to graduate from TOPGUN (2004)
A Natural Born Leader Continues His Journey of Service
By USAF Lt. Col. Rush Taylor ’96
I met Capt. Hunter Washburn ’00, USN, early on during my four years at Andover. Although his first year at Andover was the year I graduated, I knew his family well. His parents, Pete and Kit, had been Andover faculty since the late 1970s, and Pete was my swimming coach. Many at the school in the ’80s and ’90s remember the Washburn kids streaming into Commons for meals. Hunter, the the oldest of nine, led the group in those days; he also led several siblings down the path of service.
When I called Hunter to interview him for this article, he needed a minute to untangle the web of sibling updates. “Taylor [’03], number three, is back teaching at Andover and is dean of Abbot Cluster; Spencer [’01], number two, and Parker [’09], number six, work at Deerfield; Summer [’11], number seven, coaches college field hockey; Skylar [’05], number four, is working in curriculum development in Vermont; and Walker [’08], Chandler [’16],
and Kiefer, numbers five, eight, and nine, all went to the Naval Academy—Walker went submarines, and the younger two serve as artillery officers in the Marine Corps.”
From an early age, Hunter had his mind set on serving others. At November’s Andover and the Military Veteran’s Day dinner, he recalled how he sent a letter to
Caring for
Pilots, Squadron Members, and Their Families
Col. Edward H. Parker Jr. ’56, MD, USAF (Ret.)—the author of our cover story—spent two years at Andover, four at Harvard, and many more at other civilian and military institutions on his path to becoming board certified in aerospace medicine and later, radiology. He served in the USAF for two decades, beginning in 1965. Below, Parker shares his career path through the military and beyond.
I grew up near Los Angeles and first heard about Phillips Academy as a child during World War II. In 1954, I matriculated as an upper middler with a scholarship of about $500 plus one fully paid roundtrip train ticket per year. Tuition and room and board back then was around $1,500.
Andover’s influence was tremendous. Instead of going to MIT or Caltech as my grandfather and father did, I chose Harvard, as it was the best. It was the only college I
applied to. Fortunately, I was accepted and received a scholarship.
I majored in mathematics, but after my sophomore year I decided to go to medical school at the University of Southern California, where I earned an MD. Following an internship at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, I entered the Air Force. The USAF first sent me to San Antonio, Texas, for the primary course in aerospace medicine, which was followed by assignment to a fighter wing on the island of Okinawa, Japan. I primarily took care of people who flew and their families. My duties also required me to fly regularly in airplanes at our base. I was not a pilot, but the flying helped expose me to what the combat pilots experienced physiologically when conducting bombing and gunnery missions.
I liked this so much that I went on to a residency in aerospace medicine; my first year was at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. My second and third years involved further training back at Air Force facilities. I was then sent to Korat Royal Thai AFB to serve as a flight surgeon for the 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron and
the U.S. Naval Academy as an elementary school student—and the impact of actually receiving a response. “That small act of kindness, of taking the time to answer a child’s inquiry, had an incredibly profound impact on me.” For years, he carried that response— a constant reminder that eventually led to his matriculation to the Naval Academy.
run a small clinic with about 25 doctors and dentists plus a veterinarian. There, I got my required flying time on dozens of missions in the back seat of an F-4E.
I was then stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany, before returning to the United States for a mostly administrative job. My interests were changing, and I did not like how much time I was away from clinical medicine. At my request, the Air Force accepted me into a residency in radiology in San Antonio. My last tour of duty was at March AFB in Southern California. Upon retiring from the Air Force in 1985, I moved to Walla Walla, Washington, where I joined a multispecialty clinic, became head of the radiology department, and practiced radiology until retirement in 1999. Both segments of my career were enjoyable, but I enjoyed being in the Air Force the most.
My family went with me to all the bases where I trained or had duty—except for a one-year tour in Thailand that did not allow families. My wife, Nancy, and I have been married for 61 years and have three sons, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
With the USS Monsoon (PC-4) in the background, Capt. Washburn, third from left, is flanked by shipmates from the U.S. Naval Academy and fellow officers from across the waterfront during his change of command.
Hunter had weighed a choice between Princeton—a “scaled up” Andover that felt comfortable—and the Naval Academy, which promised discipline and service. “I wrote out a list of pros and cons—it became a math problem,” he recalled. He credits USN role models like Becky Calder ’94 and Justin Accomando ’99 with helping make the decision easier.
At Annapolis, Hunter quickly set his sights on becoming a Surface Warfare Officer. Excelling academically and athletically—he even helped lead Lightweight Crew to a national championship—he achieved his goal and began his ship-driving track.
His first duty station was in Norfolk, Virginia, where he served as first lieutenant and as navigator. Like many young officers, he focused on learning leadership and followership, gathering the “pieces of the puzzle”—as Andover and Annapolis had taught him—so that when it was his turn to step up, he was actually ready. While at Norfolk, he also met his future wife, Jenni, a fellow surface warfare officer.
Hunter’s follow-on assignment took him back to the Naval Academy, where he worked in the Physical Education Department and helped coach his old rowing team. During this period, he enjoyed
reconnecting with his brother Walker, who was then also at the Academy. It wasn’t long before an old mentor called with an offer: serve as a department head on a ship he was about to take command of. While the timing did not work, that call came at a crossroads in Hunter’s career, refocusing him on his long-held leadership goals.
From there, Hunter’s path led to Bahrain. After a tour as an operations officer, he took command of the Cyclone-class patrol craft USS Monsoon and its 30-person crew, patrolling the waters, protecting oil rigs, and providing overseas port security. Reminiscing about the close-knit ship and crew, he noted how that small-scale leadership provided unique challenges that paid dividends during his next command when he had 10 times as many sailors. “When you go back with more salt…as one of the more senior people on a ship, I think some of those small group principals still apply,” he says.
The themes of leadership and longevity came up again and again. “I still really enjoy what I do in the Navy, and I think a lot of that goes back to Andover,” he explains. “There are still faculty who have taught there 20 or 30 years, and so that idea of longevity—and perseverance—is always present. You’re in for the long haul.” Those messages
and values have clearly shaped his 20-year career and continue to influence him today.
After commanding USS Monsoon and USS Gravely, with multiple shore duty assignments in between, Hunter is finishing up another tour at the Pentagon and preparing to attend the Eisenhower School at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., this summer. Yet sea duty always seems around the corner for a sailor. Hunter knows that after the comfort of being able to come home every night during this last tour, he could soon be back at sea—this time possibly commanding a squadron of up to five destroyers with 1,800 sailors across multiple ships. His leadership skills, first evident 40 years ago as a child on Andover’s campus and then greatly expanded and emboldened during his 20-year Navy career, will be put to the test.
The wake of Hunter’s mentorship and leadership is undeniably large. There is no easy way to calculate his impact on the sailors under his command, but if you just look at his family, with three younger brothers attending the Naval Academy, it becomes obvious that he has an outsized influence on those around him.
Luckily for all of us, his leadership journey is not yet complete.
Maj. Parker with an F-4E at Royal Thai AFB circa 1972. “Flight surgeons were required to fly at least four hours per month,” says Parker, “and the squadron was short of GIBs, ‘guys in back,’ so I flew almost 60 missions in the back seat of an F-4E.”
Honor a Fallen Hero Support the Kristensen Scholarship
June marks 20 years since Lt. Cmdr. Erik S. Kristensen ’91, USN, SEAL, was killed in action while leading Operation Red Wings, a mission to help rescue another SEAL team that became trapped in an intense gun battle with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. In 2014, the Erik S. Kristensen Memorial Scholarship was created in honor of his bravery during his time in war, with the goal to support children of those who are serving or have served in the military to attend Andover’s Summer Session at no cost to their families.
Your support of the Kristensen Memorial Scholarship—in any amount—makes a difference and is greatly appreciated. Please make a gift at andover.edu/AATMgift.
Veterans Day Event 2024
A large group of alumni, faculty, and students gathered on campus on November 7, 2024, for Andover’s 15th annual Veterans Day Dinner and Program. Pictured in Kemper Auditorium are, from left, Justin P. Accomando ’99, AATM Executive Committee member; keynote speaker Capt. Hunter D. Washburn ’00, USN; and Capt. Rob Patrick ’88, USN (Ret.), AATM Executive Committee chair.
To view the video, visit andover.edu/paserves This event is co-sponsored by the Office of Alumni Engagement.
From the Editor
Of my many negative traits, lack of organization is one that plagues me the most. I wanted to have this issue out several months ago, but life got in the way. I apologize for the delay!
After talking with many of you about the Veteran’s Day event in November and then listening to Capt. Washburn’s speech, I was inspired to learn more about Hunter and his family. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my interview, beginning on page 2.
A personal thank you to Col. Ed Parker ’56 for helping pave the way for female pilots in the USAF and writing our cover story. My wife, Brandee, is a C-17 instructor pilot and occasionally wears the patch (pictured at right) that was created as a show of support for the women in that first pilot training class, all of whom graduated in 1977.
A shout-out to David Chase and George Rider for their consistently informative and entertaining articles over the years. I would love to hear from anyone with a story or memory about their military service at military@andover.edu. The Blue Guidon is for you—please help me make it better!
USAF Lt. Col. Rush Taylor ’96
The Newsletter of Andover and the Military Vol. 13, No. 1 military@andover.edu Published biannually by
