`Muffin' Is Air Force Reserve's First Woman To Pilot Fighter Jets

TUCSON, Ariz. - Her call sign is "Muffin," but 1st Lt. Leslie DeAnn Crosby is anything but a softy.

She flies F-16 fighter jets that whoosh along at an altitude above 50,000 feet at a top speed of more than 1,000 mph.

And she is combat-ready.

Crosby, 31, graduated this month from the 162nd Fighter Group's F-16 Fighting Falcon training course at the Arizona Air National Guard.

"Literally, my next flight could be in combat," she said.

"I know what's involved, and I don't have any second thoughts about combat."

She will be assigned to the 704th Fighter Squadron at Bergstrom Air Reserve Station in Austin, Texas.

Crosby is the first woman pilot in the Air Force Reserve to fly fighter aircraft, but she refuses to dwell on that fact.

"I don't think about being the first female reserve pilot, but the big deal is meeting the standards and qualifying as part of a five-member team," she said.

"I still don't believe I've had the opportunity to become a fighter pilot. That's been going through my mind the past seven months, but the opportunity did come."

A veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, she flew many operational missions there that helped her earn the Humanitarian Service Medal and the Southwest Asia Service Medal with two bronze stars.

It was during the Gulf War that she got her call sign. "I had this habit of eating bran muffins all the time," she explained.

Flying has been her dream since she was 8 years old.

"I definitely knew what I wanted to do, and that was to fly aerobatics," she said.

She is an aerobatics pilot who also flies antique and veteran military aircraft.

She holds several civilian aviation ratings, including an airline transport pilot certificate and a ground instructor certificate, and she has instrument and multiengine ratings.

But there is a special thrill to being in an F-16, which can travel nearly 10 miles in 60 seconds, she said.

"It's the most incredible feeling to be flying single."

Crosby, who started her F-16 class in October, graduated with four men.

"In order to succeed you have to work as a team. I had to try not to set myself apart in any way," she said.