Lt. Col. Jacqui Marty
By Gina Doughty
Jacqui Marty looks
like an ordinary woman.
At least, she looks as ordinary as anyone can, wearing a
well-worn flight suit with a Lieutenant Colonel's insignia, sitting
on a panel with four other women telling "Stories from the War
Front." A combat-experienced Air Force pilot who can claim to have
traveled to every State and a dozen foreign countries, she's got a
few stories to share.
"We were scared and excited," she says bluntly, describing the
sleepless night her crew spent before a sortie over Kosovo. She
describes her emotions with the same factual simplicity that she
describes her aircraft.
But even on the front lines she found moments of levity. In the
air her copilot--another female Air Force pilot on her first combat
mission--exclaimed excitedly that there must be a celebration going
on below. "She said, 'Look, they're shooting off fireworks!'" Marty
says with a small laugh. "I told her, 'Uh, that's not fireworks.
They are actually shooting at us." She is quick to reassure, "We
were high enough it wasn't a factor."
She adds thoughtfully, "But is sure was something to see."
Marty recounts another story of being stranded in Thailand after
a hydraulic failure on her KC-10. After several days and many phone
calls to coordinate the arrival of parts and personnel to effect
repairs, she caught the attention of the staff at the hotel. When
asked, the Thai member of Marty's crew attempted explain that she
was the commanding officer, in charge of a nine-person crew--which
happened to be all male. Marty said "She understood the words, but
couldn't grasp the concept of a woman in charge." After an
extensive explanation, Marty's crew member eventually got the
message across.
"Suddenly it was like the Red Sea parting when I walked into a
room. They bowed and smiled [when they greeted me]. I went to my
room and there was a huge fruit basket. It was very nice, but I
thought it was a little late for a welcome basket," she recalls.
"When I found out what had happened, you can bet I took advantage
of that as often as I could!" She says with a laugh.
For U.S. military personnel stationed in the UAE, movement is
extremely limited. Marty recalls being limited to only certain
areas on base, and required to go nearly everywhere in pairs. "But
after spending that much time together, you needed some alone
time," she admits. To get a moment of solitude, she went for a jog
around the free-movement area of the base. On the way, she
encountered a local woman supervising her children as they played
in the yard. Stopping to pick up a ball that rolled away from the
children, she chanced to make eye contact with the woman.
No words passed between them, as regulations prohibited
interaction, and the language barrier stood impentrable,
regardless. But as the women stood looking at each other--one
wearing standard workout clothes for an American woman, the other
in the traditional black Abaya, her face and body entirely
concealed except for her eyes--Marty said she felt a deep
connection between them.
"She looked at me with envy...and what I think was this powerful
longing."
Able to pursue a career, given recognition and status equal to
that of men, allowed the same opportunities, Marty expresses
empathy for women denied such things. She struggles to find the
words, and emotion fogs her voice as she continues, "It was then
that I realized... how lucky I am to be an American woman, with the
rights and freedoms we have... I'm very grateful."