She is The MACH | F-35 DEMO PILOT

Hello, I am Captain Melanie Mott-Kusner. I am the commander of the F-35 demo team and stationed at the Hell Air Force Base in Utah. I knew for sure that I wanted to serve in the military after my family members, who were in the military, inspired me to do so. My parents, my uncle and my grandparents all served in the air force, specifically to become a pilot. When I was about 8 years old, my parents took me to a football game at the Air Force Academy and I could see how the F-16s flew over the stadium. That's super loud and really fast. I looked up to my father and said, Dad, I will be that one day. And he said, well, Melanie, you should get a better job. When I realized that I could do such a great job, I never regretted it. When I grew up, I was very grateful to my friends, my parents and my family members, who all believed in me and encouraged me to realize my dream of becoming a fighter pilot. I want to be this person for someone else and I hope to be able to inspire the next generation to do a job that is incomparable to any other. As a one-seater fighter pilot, you are entrusted with so much responsibility. You fly a really expensive aircraft. You trust that you are the only one in the cockpit when something goes wrong. To bear so much responsibility at such a young age is something very special. As a demo pilot, I have the opportunity to pay tribute to our veterans and soldiers, to share a really cool and meaningful job with people of all age groups and of course to present the latest and best fighter jet of the fifth generation of the air force. I graduated from the University of Southern California and was promoted to the military by the ROC in 2014. I have completed over 1,000 flight hours in various aircraft, including the T-6, the T-38, the F-16 and the F-35. My first combat mission was in Gunggen, South Korea, in the F-16. From there I took part in an internal exchange with the Marines and was allowed to fly the F-35B in Yukon, Japan. Then I went to Luke and became a flight instructor in the B course. Now I'm stationed in Hill. My husband is also a F-35 pilot. We were lucky to be stationed together most of our career. My parents were both pilots in the Air Force. My father flew F-16 and my mother Kassai 135. My father was a demo pilot in the 80s of the Pecketh F-16. So I grew up with his flight. My mother was one of the first women to graduate from the Air Force Academy. She completed her pilot training with the qualification for a fighter jet. At that time, however, women were not allowed to fly fighter jets. She is a great inspiration for me. She has a few incredible stories to tell from her career. I think it is really important that people understand that it does not matter what you look like or fit into a certain scheme if you want to become a fighter pilot or serve in the military in general. It is important that you are ready to be disciplined and hard at work. You are ready to be a team player and it is important to serve your country. It was a long way to get where I am now, but big dreams are worth the sacrifice. And there is nothing more beautiful than doing a job that you love and for something that is bigger than yourself. I hope that I can pass this message on to the next generation. I am very much looking forward to the season and we have trained hard to be ready to demonstrate the skills of the F-35. I hope that everyone who sees the demo will be inspired to have big dreams, just like me when I was a little kid. It's showtime!