Happy International Women’s Month!

March 8th is International Women's Month, and I would like to honor LT. Ronaqua Russell is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and she belongs to a group called “Fab 5” which consists of only five African American female pilots in all of Coast Guard history she continued to make history by being awarded the Air Medal in 2019.

LT. Russell’s HC — 144 Ocean Sentry was the first in the air following the category 4 storm force winds, zero visibility conditions, and piloting landings onto partially flooded runways. She and her crew delivered supplies and support personnel for the ongoing rescue and port recovery efforts. Lt. Russell also flew damage assessments and assisted on the ground by then serving at the Incident Command Post for the Corpus Christi area.

A few days later, the Virgin Islands were hit by Hurricane Irma, a category 5 storm. Lt. Russell’s family was unable to evacuate and lost communications but thankfully were safe taking shelter in their homes. Shortly after another storm, Hurricane Maria began developing, and again, Lt. Russell was called to assist in evacuations and deliver supplies.

Due to her admirable and heroic actions during these times of natural disasters, she became the first African-American female aviator in the Coast Guard to receive the Air Medal. The ceremonies to honor her achievement, reported by the Maritime Executive, took place at Tuskegee’s Moton Field, the location where the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military not only won the fight on racial inequalities to earn their wings but also went on to fly heroic combat missions in WWII.