{"id":9083,"date":"2019-02-14T09:33:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T08:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9083"},"modified":"2019-02-14T09:33:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T08:33:46","slug":"high-flyer-grounded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/9083\/","title":{"rendered":"High Flyer Grounded"},"content":{"rendered":"

Again, perhaps we shouldn’t extrapolate too much from this<\/a>, but…<\/p>\n

The first female pilot to lead the U.S. Air Force\u2019s Viper team was asked to leave after two weeks on the job,\u00a0the Air Force Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Capt. Zoe Kotnik was commander of the F-16 Viper Demo Team, a fleet that performs complicated aerial stunts at widely seen events such as the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Col. Allen Herritage, director of public affairs at Air\u00a0Combat Command, stated that Col. Derek O\u2019Malley,\u00a020th Fighter Wing\u00a0commander, relieved Kotnik of command due to his \u201closs of confidence in her ability to lead and command.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two weeks. Either the selection process is incapable of weeding out those who lack the “ability to lead and command” or it was deliberately compromised for political reasons. I know which option I’d stake the contents of my wallet on.<\/p>\n

Kotnik\u2019s hiring was\u00a0announced on Twitter\u00a0on Jan. 29, showing a photo of her with the caption, \u201cIn that instant, she knew she could fly her F-16 higher, further and faster than anyone else.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One thing I will say for the current crop of empowered women gunning for top leadership positions, they’re not lacking in self-belief. Unfortunately, it seems in this case it was misplaced.<\/p>\n

The unit will now be commanded by\u00a0Maj. John Waters, who led the Viper team last year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The real injustice here is that, absent the railroading of Kotnik into the position, a more suitable candidate would have taken it. That person lost out on the job he deserved, all so the top brass could tick a diversity box.<\/p>\n

(Via Kevin Michael Grace<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Again, perhaps we shouldn’t extrapolate too much from this, but… The first female pilot to lead the U.S. Air Force\u2019s Viper team was asked to leave after two weeks on the job,\u00a0the Air Force Times reported. Capt. Zoe Kotnik was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[79],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9083"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9084,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9083\/revisions\/9084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}