The severe illness taught me that being a fighter pilot gave me the skills and traits I needed to survive my illness and turn to my new mission of ad… - Nicole Malachowski

"You know, whether we like it or not sometimes when you’re a first, you end up speaking on behalf of the group and that can be hard and that can be complex and gnarly but somebody has to go first,""And you definitely want to do it in a way that creates more opportunity for the people that follow.

What happened is, we did it over and over until I got it right. It was the right thing to do by our customer and client [the audience on the ground]. My teammates helped me from a place of kindness and commitment,” she says. “It’s never beneath any of us to offer help, too.”

People like you don’t become Thunderbird pilots.”