Call Sign Revlon: The Life and Death of Navy Fighter Pilot Kara Hultgreen

This book has been around for awhile. I recommend it to every American who is concerned about how womwn members of our armed forces are treated. I was a Navy jet carrier pilot in the 1950's. Although their were no women carrier pilots, if there were I guarantee there could never have been this kind of leadership failure. To get a perspective I recommend reading"Hornets Nest", "She's Just Another Navy Pilot" and "Fall From Glory, The Men Who Sank The U.S. Navy"

I worked with Kara in VAQ-33 and became a close friend. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding her training or death, anybody that took the time to get to know her was impressed. She was cocky, funny, sensitive and more driven than anyone else I've ever met. Thinking of her drive to pursue her goals has helped me persevere to accomplish my own dreams. Her mother has written a book that reflects who Kara was, and to me that is what it's all about - the amazing woman Kara Hultgreen was.

Beyond the crash that took LT Hultgreen's life. I liked walking away after reading this book thinking to myself "if I only had the focus and a dream early in my life like she did, there's no telling where I could have gone in life". I did serve in the Navy with LT Hultgreen at NAS Key West for 2 years(90-92)and remember her very well. She was and remains to be an inspiration to me.

This is a well-written, sensitive review of Lt. Kara Hultgreen's life as a fighter pilot, and her death in an F14 accident. The author, Kara's mother, has used Kara's letters home about her career in the navy to give an illuminating portrait of carrier & pilot life. Kara herself had a wonderfully positive approach to life, which served her well. This is a very good read.

If I could have chosen a life for myself that would have been ideal, it would have been as the driver of pointy nosed jets with after-burners that fly off of ships at sea. I am 53 years old now so being able to fulfill that dream will have to wait until my next life. I never lost interest, though, and that's what made me turn my head when Kara Hultgreen started to make her mark in the early 1990's in the Navy. I knew then that she was probably meeting with more than just a little antagonism. Being a woman in the military can be challenging enough. Being a woman who flies jets can meet with even more atagonistic attitudes and being a women who wants to fly jets from carriers...well, you probably get the idea. I cannot and would not ever be willing or able to argue any point related to Kara's ability to fly carrier based jets successfully. My experience and knowledge eliminates that as a possibility. Some pretty experienced folks in the U.S. Navy must have thought Kara was pretty good or she never would have gotten as far as she most certainly got with it all. I will never believe that all these folks involved would have buckled to what pressure detractors say might have been applied, if she had not been what she needed to be. I have to believe in the Navy's judgement and I would have a difficult time really believing that any truly untalented pilot could get thru the system, regardless of gender or politics, if they didn't have what it really takes. If the claims that Kara's training was accelerated because of her gender are true for any reason, that cannot take away from the fact that she was undoubtedly confident and good at what she did and she went thru some real struggle and up hill battles to follow her dream.That is what this is all about...it is about Kara's dream. I think that Sally Spears' work and effort to write this book about her daughter is marvelous. If a reader has trouble agreeing with an exact source or the validation of certain facts...I can understand that. Not every fact and occurance can be right on the mark. Get to know Sally thru her book and you may agree with me that she seems to be the sort of writer who would be as sure as she could be about many facts, if not all of them. The facts that we cannot dispute, though, are those Ms. Spears tells us that relate to her feelings for her daughter, her daughter's work, her daughter's life and her death. That is why we need to read it. Not to suddenly discover the right or wrong of any issue but to learn about a marvelous young woman as seen thru the eyes of her Mom.That she wrote it, I would argue, is amazing enough. That she wrote it with such detail about aviation things that a San Antonio lawyer, who never flew, would have to spend hours upon hours getting right, and that she wrote it with such objectivity towards Kara's personality, both the perfect parts and the not so perfect...well, that is what impresses me the most. The pain of losing your vivacious, young daughter i