Barbara Allen Rainey

Infobox Military Person
name= Barbara Ann Allen (Rainey)
born= birth date|1948|8|20
died= death date and age|1982|7|13|1948|8|20
placeofbirth= Bethesda, Maryland
placeofdeath= Evergreen, Alabama
placeofburial= Arlington National Cemetery


caption=Rainey as a Lt. Junior Grade
nickname=
allegiance= United States of America
serviceyears=
rank= Lieutenant Commander
branch= United States Navy
commands=
unit=
battles=
awards=
relations=
laterwork=

Barbara Ann Allen Rainey (August 20, 1948 - 13 July - 1982) was the first female pilot in the U. S. armed forces. Rainey received her wings of gold as the first female to be designated a Naval aviator in February of 1974 and became the first Navy woman to qualify as a jet pilot. >cite book |last=Ebbert |first=Jean and Marie-Beth Hall|title=Crossed Currents: Navy Women from WWI to Tailhook [Revised] |date=1999 |publisher=Brassey's |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-1574881936 ] She attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy. She was killed in an aircraft crash in 1982 while performing her duties as a flight instructor. cite news|author=|publisher=Naval Aviation News|title=First Woman Designated Naval Aviator Dies in Plane Crash|page=48|date=October, 1982|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1980s/1982/oct82.pdf] .

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Early life and career

Allen was born at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland and was the daughter of a career Naval Officer. She was an outstanding athlete in high school and a member of the National Honor Society. Consistently on the dean's list at Long Beach City College, California, she later transferred to and graduated from Whittier College in California. She was commissioned in the United States Navy Reserve in ceremonies at U.S Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island in December 1970, and was assigned to the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia.cite web
title =Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Ann Allen (Rainey) (1948-1982)
work = Aviation Pioneers : An Anthology
author= Naughton, Russell (editor)
publisher = Hargrave
url =http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/rainey.html
accessdate = 2007-01-16] She later served on the staff of the Supreme Allied Command, Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia.cite web
title =Women in the Training Command
author = Love, JOC Bill W.
publisher = U.S. Navy
url =http://www.history.navy.mil/download/train-04.pdf
format = PDF
accessdate = 2007-01-18]

First female Naval Aviator

In early 1973 ,the Secretary of the Navy John W. Warner announced a test program to train female Naval Aviators. Seeking a greater challenge and wanting to following in the footsteps of her U.S. Marine Corps aviator brother, Bill, Allen applied to the program and was accepted into the U.S. Naval Flight Training School. Allen and seven other women reported for flight training on March 2, 1973 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. She was the first of her class to win her Gold Wings and was designated the first female Naval Aviator in history in ceremonies at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, on February 22, 1974. She was assigned to fly C-1s in Alameda, California with a transport squadron and became the first jet qualified woman in the U. S. Navy flying the T-39.

Allen married John C. Rainey, whom she had met during her flight training. While pregnant with her first daughter, she transferred to the Naval Reserves in November 1977. She remained active in the Naval Reserves and while pregnant with her second daughter, qualified to fly the R6D (DC-6).

In 1981, with the Navy experiencing a shortage of flight instructors, she was accepted for recall to active duty as a flight instructor and was assigned to Training Squadron Three (VT-3) based at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, flying the T-34C Mentor. On July 13, 1982, Allen, along with her trainee Ensign Donald Bruce Knowlton were practicing touch-and-go landings at Middleton Field near Evergreen, Alabama when the aircraft banked sharply to avoid another plane, lost altitude, and crashed. Allen and Knowlton were both killed in the crash.cite web
title =Barbara Allen Rainey
work = Arlington National Cemetery
publisher = ANC Website
url =http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/barbaraa.htm
accessdate = 2007-01-18]

ee also

Naval Aviation

References

External links

*findagrave|4306 Retrieved on 2008-02-09

Further reading

*cite news|author=Helen F. Collins|publisher=Naval Aviation News|title=Women in Naval Aviation: From Plane Captains to Pilots|date=July, 1977|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1970s/1977/jul77.pdf
*cite news|author=Sandy Russell|publisher=Naval Aviation News|title=High Flying Ladies|date=February, 1981|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1980s/1981/feb81.pdf
*cite book |last=Grossnick |first= Roy A.|title=United States Naval Aviation 1910–1995 |date=1997 |publisher=Naval Historical Center|location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0–945274–34–3
*cite book |last=Holden |first=Henry M. with Captain Lori Griffith|title=Ladybirds - The Untold Story of Women Pilots in America.|date=1991 |publisher=Black Hawk Publishing Co. |location= Mt. Freedom, NJ|isbn=9781879630116