Each year, the U.S. Navy announces the new team members for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team.
When the Navy announced the five new team members for the 2023 Show Season, the service also made history.
Included in that list was Lt. Amanda Lee.
And while Lee is not the first female Sailor to serve with the Blue Angels in the teams’ 56-year history, she is the first demonstration pilot to join.
She will serve alongside three other women currently on the team ñ serving as a flight surgeon, public affairs officer, and event coordinator.
Lee is a native of Mounds View, Minn., and prior to joining the team she was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 106 based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Va.
Lee also took part in the first all-female flyover in 2019 for the funeral of retired Capt. Rosemary Mariner — the first woman to command a naval aviation squadron.
In a Navy release at that time, Lee 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. Its people like Captain Mariner that have paved that way for us, so it’s really a huge honor. I’m super humbled to be a part of this flyover in her honor.”
Lee reported to the squadron in September 2022 at the end of the show season. She is now taking part in a five-month training program that includes time at NAS Pensacola, Fla., the Blue Angels’ home base, and NAF El Centro, Calif.
The Blue Angels first air show of the 2023 season is at NAF El Centro on March 11.