THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 21, 1995 TAG: 9501210213
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
The Navy has ordered Lt. Shannon Workman, the first woman to qualify as a combat pilot on an aircraft carrier, off the Norfolk-based Dwight D. Eisenhower because of her difficulties in landing jets on the ship.
The Navy took the same action for the same reason against Lt. Gerald DiLeonardo, a male pilot in Workman's EA-6B squadron. The EA-6B is a bulky, twin-engine jet loaded with electronic warfare gear, which must be brought down in a carrier landing in the center of a short stretch of deck to catch one of four arresting wires.
The orders, by an evaluation board on the carrier, still require final approval by Vice Adm. Richard C. Allen, commander of the Naval Air Force of the Atlantic Fleet, whose headquarters are in Norfolk. But such orders are virtually always approved.
Navy officials stress that their standards are equally tough for female and male pilots in determining whether to allow them to fly off carriers. Ten female aviators remain aboard, six of them pilots, performing well, officials said.
The action against Workman seems likely to bolster the view, expressed by some male Navy aviators, that underqualified female pilots have been pushed along so the Navy fulfill its 1993 promise to open carrier squadrons to women. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Workman
KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY AVIATOR U.S. NAVY PILOT
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