Navy's Blue Angels name first female fighter jet pilot

July 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has selected a female fighter jet pilot to join the Blue Angels' elite flight demonstration team for the first time in the squadron's 76-year history.

Navy Lt. Amanda Lee, who is stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., will start intensive training this fall to pilot one of the six blue and gold F/A-18 Super Hornet jets renowned for performing aerial acrobatics at flight shows and sporting events.

Lee is currently on the flight demonstration team Strike Fighter Squadron 106, known as the Gladiators. Her first event with the Blue Angels is expected sometime early next year, the Navy said.

"When I come into the ready room right now, I'm a pilot first, a person second and my gender really isn't an issue," Lee said in an interview released by the Navy.

Lee is one of six new team members the Blue Angels announced Monday. Other members include a flight surgeon, an events coordinator, a C-130J Super Hercules pilot and an aviation maintenance officer to "replace outgoing team members," according to the Blue Angels statement.

Lee enlisted in the Navy in 2007 and worked as an aviation electronics technician before joining a seaman-to-admiral commissioning program. She participated in an all-female flyover in 2019 to honor the first female Navy jet pilot, Capt. Rosemary Mariner, at her funeral.

While Lee is the first female fighter jet pilot to be accepted into the Blue Angels, she is not the squadron's first female pilot. Marine Maj. Katie Cook, who joined the Blue Angels in 2015, flew the squadron's KC-130 "Fat Albert" logistics aircraft.

"For over 55 years, hundreds of women have served with the Blue Angels representing the very best of the Navy and Marine Corps," the Navy said in a statement.

"We had an overwhelming number of applicants from all over the globe this year," said Capt. Brian Kesselring, commanding officer and flight leader of the Blue Angels.

"We look forward to training our fantastic new team members, passing on the torch and watching the incredible things this team will accomplish in 2023."