Would the title have read “Male Fighter Pilot...’?
Exactly. What a load of crap. Heroic were the firemen who ran back into the World Trade Center. Heroic were the passengers on Flight 93. Heroic isn’t someone who flew a plane and that is it. She is heroic because she had to think about crashing her plane in a suicide mission but never did it?
I think the thousands of Marines who had to go door to door in Fallujah, pausing outside doors, and smashing them in and running into the unknown displayed far more heroism and courage, but we don’t hear about them, because they are men and are lower level enlisted.
I don’t know if the pilot herself is trumpeting her horn, so I don’t necessarily have an issue with her. She probably went up thinking she would have to do what needs doing. I have an issue with the people trumpeting her as some kind of hero. I felt bad for Jessica Lynch. These same people were making her into a female version of Sgt. York, when it was nothing like that at all. She didn’t want them to make a big deal out of it, but there were a lot of people who wanted to use her as a prop for the “female warrior” crap.
The same people trumpeting this pilot as a hero for flying her plane.
Since the general meme puts a male in one's mind when "fighter pilot" is mentioned, I'll forgive it. Descriptions are good if used appropriately......