Join the Pritzker Military Museum and Library for a discussion on the stories of trailblazing women who fought for the right to fly in the military with author Col. Eileen A. Bjorkman, moderated by Retired Navy pilot Jan Donatelli.
Retired Colonel Eileen A. Bjorkman’s new book, The FlyGirls Revolt: The Story of the Women Who Kicked Open the Door to Fly in Combat, celebrates the historic milestones in women’s aviation by telling the stories of the trailblazing women who fought for the right to fly––including the author, a civilian pilot with a long military career herself. As a flight test engineer who was one of a handful of women to fly fighter airplanes in the 1980s, Bjorkman had a front-row seat to the history in the book.
The Fly Girls Revolt takes readers back to the roots of the movement, starting with the women who laid the groundwork in the 1940s for inclusion in 1993. “My book is about women pilots but also gives credit to all women who served in the military from World War II on,” Bjorkman writes.
Although the U.S. repealed the law preventing women in combat in 1991, it took two more years for Secretary of Defense Les Aspin to order the military to train women for combat aircraft. That same month, General Merrill McPeak, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), introduced the first three women fighter pilots to the public: Lt. Jeannie Flynn, Lt. Martha Mc Sally, and Capt. Sharon Preszler.
“The march to equality was not steady,” writes Bjorkman. “It was more like a game where the women started ten points behind, and every time they clawed their way forward, the opposing team ran back over them.”
Eileen A. Bjorkman is a writer, pilot, aeronautical engineer, and retired Air Force colonel. As the sixth woman to graduate from the USAF Test Pilot School, she is widely recognized as an Air Force trailblazer. She was a flight test engineer during her Air Force career, flying more than 700 hours in twenty-five different types of military aircraft, including fighters such as the F-4 and F-16. She retired from the Air Force in 2010 as a colonel after thirty years of active-duty service. She is also a civilian pilot with more than 2,000 hours of pilot time. She is currently the Executive Director at the Air Force Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California and is the first woman to hold that position.
As a United States Navy pilot, Jan Donatelli was an Aircraft Commander, Strategic Mission Commander and Instructor Pilot. She is also a former Delta Air Lines pilot. Jan has served on the Board of Directors for 4D Pac, the Honorary Board of Directors for Student Veterans of America, the Veterans Advisory Board for National Louis University, and as Executive Vice President of Veterans and Military Families for Progress. Jan recently served as the Commander of her American Legion Post 758. Additionally, in 2015, she was named a “Sister of the Planet” Ambassador for the international food aid organization, Oxfam, and she was presented with the national Pi Beta Phi Crest Award for national service. She was a candidate for US Congress (IL-5) in 2009, and in that year had the honor of being the recipient of the AFL-CIO Heroes of Labor Award. A member of the Union League Club, she currently lives with her family in Chicago.
