All- Female Flyover to Honor Naval Aviation Pioneer Captain Rosemary Mariner; Interview with Stacy Uttecht and Joellen Oslund, Naval Aviators
HOWELL: Welcome back. We take a moment now to mark the passing of a true aviation pioneer, Rosemary Mariner. Until she came along, no woman had ever qualified to fly fighter jets for the U.S. Navy. In fact, she was one of the first women even allowed to try in 1973.</s>ALLEN: Rosemary quickly proved she had the right stuff. Not only did she master the Navy's supersonic aircraft, she smashed through the gender barrier at close to mach 2 and never looked back. She would go on to be the first woman to command a squadron.</s>HOWELL: Retired naval Captain Rosemary Mariner died last week at the age of 65 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. And to honor her and her singular achievement, the Navy sanctioned another aviation first, an all-female flyover. There it is.</s>ALLEN: It is called the Missing Man formation. You'll see one of them zoom up into the heavens, although the Navy may want to consider a name change under these circumstances. At a predetermined moment, one of the jets streaks toward the sky. It is a fitting and emotional tribute to the rare breed who can rightfully be called a Navy aviator.</s>ALLEN: Joining me now is the mission commander for the flyover for Rosemary Mariner, Stacy Uttecht, and also with her, Joellen Osland, the first naval helicopter pilot from the 1970s. In the background, as you can see, we have naval aviation pioneers, plus the women from the flyover. So I love the team spirit, ladies, that you have there with you. What a day. Stacy, can you start and just tell me -- I have always lost my breath at Missing Man formations. I can't imagine what it was like to be in first ever Missing Woman formation or to witness it in the crowd. Tell us about your experience.</s>COMMANDER STACY UTTECHT, U.S. NAVY: So for our experience, you know, obviously the Missing Man formation is definitely a very emotional thing, especially if you're on the ground witnessing it. When you're actually executing it, you're focused on the mission at hand. We really wanted to make sure this was a perfect event to honor Captain Mariner.</s>ALLEN: Had you worked with these women pilots before? Did you all just come together to do this? Did you know of one another?</s>UTTECHT: Some of them I had worked with before and met before and some I actually met over the last couple of days, as we did the planning for the event.</s>ALLEN: How about that? SO I understand you were the lead pilot in the formation. Tell us how that works.</s>UTTECHT: So I'm the weapons systems officer. So I sat in the back seat of the lead aircraft. But we basically work all the timing to make sure everything worked out great, so that we -- everyone got the nice shot, the family was able to see the formation and everything like that. And we also made sure that the lineup and everything was perfect for the Missing Man flyover.</s>ALLEN: And was it perfect?</s>UTTECHT: That's what I'm told.</s>ALLEN: Your supporters say, yes, it was perfect. Oh, my goodness. I can't imagine how emotional, because we lost Rosemary too early and what a trailblazer she was. So I want to say that, coming in to the Navy, and I want to also ask this of Joellen, did you know --</s>ALLEN: -- about Rosemary, did you know about what she did to set the trail for the rest of you?</s>COMMANDER JOELLEN OSLUND, U.S. NAVY: Yes, absolutely. Rosemary and I were in officer candidate school together in 1973. And we finished that in May of '73 and then we went on to flight training together and we did preflight together. And I received my wings in April of '74 and Rosemary was very shortly after that in May of '74. So we have been friends and colleagues ever since and kept in touch down through the years and shared a lot of experiences along the way.</s>ALLEN: Joellen, you have to give us a little taste of what it was like to be a trailblazer. The 1970s, there weren't other women like you.</s>OSLUND: There were six of us, exactly.</s>OSLUND: And we were trailblazers, no doubt. We kind of didn't realize our role at the time because, when you're in the midst of those things, you don't really realize what your impact may or may not be at the time. So the six of us were -- we didn't spend a lot of time together. After we finished officer candidate school and went through preflight together, we basically did not see each other very much after that. And, of course, back in the '70s, way before the days of cell phones and email and texting, it was very difficult to keep in touch with one another. But Rosemary and I managed to do that. And it has been very gratifying. And it was absolutely the saddest thing ever to lose her this soon.</s>ALLEN: Absolutely. I totally understand, I can't imagine how emotional it was to fly planes at the same time you honor her. Stacy, what did you know about Rosemary?</s>UTTECHT: So I didn't actually know much about Captain Mariner until recently. But I do know -- I remember, in 1993, when the combat exclusion was lifted, I was 15 years old and I didn't quite have an idea of how big of an impact that policy change would make. And obviously Captain Mariner and her contemporaries had a lot to do with that decision. And if you look at the female aviators that took part in the flyover today, we all have multiple combat deployments under our belt. And it's all because of women like Captain Mariner and Joellen here and all the other contemporaries that paved the way for us and broke down those barriers.</s>ALLEN: Joellen, I want to talk with you, I asked Stacy about this. What was it like for you to witness this all-female flyover there, to honor your comrade and your colleague in the Navy?</s>OSLUND: Well, today could not have gone any more perfectly. The weather was perfect. The entire community turned out for this event. There were people from the community parked all alongside the road. They had been parked there for a couple of hours waiting for the fly- by. The timing was perfect. And it was just a very emotional and moving moment when the Missing Woman formation pulled away and disappeared up into the sun up above in the sky. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. And it couldn't have gone more perfectly. And to have this event was sort of the culmination of Rosemary's work throughout her career. She challenged policies for 24 years that kept women out of tactical and fighter jets and out of combat and off of ships at sea. And to see this, 47 years ago we never would have dreamed that this would happen.</s>ALLEN: That's absolutely wonderful. Yes, one story, the headline was she was a badass.</s>ALLEN: She absolutely was, wasn't she? What a trailblazer. And you are, too. Well, thank you so much, we appreciate you giving us your time, we appreciate your colleagues behind you, supporting you in this team spirit so much. Stacy Uttecht and Joellen Oslund, thank you so much and thank you for your service.</s>OSLUND: Thank you.</s>UTTECHT: Thank you.</s>HOWELL: That is just awesome to see, excellent reporting.</s>ALLEN: Really celebrating their friend that they lost. Just a little side note, also speaking at the funeral was Tammy Jo Schultz, you may remember that name, she was the pilot of that Southwest plane that she had to make the emergency landing and she served under Captain Mariner in the Navy. How about that?</s>HOWELL: Small world. Still ahead, Pope Francis is about to make history with his trip to the UAE. What that means for the region's Christians and Muslims -- ahead. Stay with us.