Jet Girl: My Life in War, Peace, and the Cockpit of the Navy’s Most Lethal Aircraft, the F/A-18 Super Hornet

Former weapons system officer Johnson debuts with a garrulous memoir recounting her training at the U.S. Navy’s flight school in Pensacola, Fla.; the camaraderie she developed with her fellow “jet girls”; and her decision to leave the “fighter community” as a result of “harassment and gender discrimination.” After graduating at the top of her flight school class, Johnson was selected for the Blacklions, an elite fighter group based out of Virginia Beach, Va. Immediately upon joining the squadron, however, she was subjected to the kinds of “microaggressions” that, she argues, wear down the navy’s female aviators over time, causing four out of every five of them to stop flying at the first available opportunity. Though she took out three armored vehicles and killed 16 ISIS fighters during the 2014 campaign to rescue 50,000 Yazidis under attack by the terrorist caliphate on Mount Sinjar, Johnson stopped being assigned “prime events” after she told her commanding officer that she felt isolated by her squadmates. Eventually, she asked to be reassigned to the naval academy as a leadership instructor. An enthusiastic narrator, Johnson’s love of flying comes through clearly. This no-holds-barred account will interest aviation buffs and those invested in making the military more welcoming to women. (Nov.)