WASHINGTON — She was a "poster girl for women's aviation," accomplished, ambitious and maybe more than a little abrasive. They were male fighter pilots of the old school, cocky, clannish and wary of the forces threatening their traditionally all-male warrior culture.
When these two sides collided within a New York Air National Guard unit, the result was one of the most destructive explosions of gender conflict since the integration of women in the military began.
One year after Maj. Jacquelyn S. Parker began training to become the Air Guard's first female F-16 pilot, her fighter career was over, two superiors had been ousted in disgrace and the 174th Fighter Wing was on its way to a top-to-bottom reorganization.
As the armed forces move women into new roles, the sad tale of the 174th stands as an object lesson. When undermined by poor management and personal antagonism, these efforts are doomed to fail.
Left behind at the Syracuse-based wing is a debate that rages still: Did Parker fail to win her combat wings because male fliers campaigned to keep her out of a groundbreaking role? Or did she simply lack the right stuff?
Whatever the answer, the botched effort to train Parker, who now lives in Placentia, "portrays a failure of leadership at all levels," New York Inspector General Roslynn R. Mauskopf said in a post-mortem of the incident.
The missteps began as far back as April 1993, when then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin ordered combat pilot positions opened to women.
Maj. Gen. Michael Hall, who as New York adjutant general was the state's top military official, moved quickly to arrange combat training of female fliers. He hoped to show the state's good faith, generate some favorable publicity and perhaps help ward off threatened cutbacks in the New York Guard.
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Parker, then 33, seemed to have the dream resume: The 15-year veteran was the first woman graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., a former NASA spaceflight controller and a pilot with 3,300 hours of flying time.
Her accomplishments had attracted the attention of Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and she became a minor celebrity who made TV and personal appearances as a symbol of the new gender-integrated Air Force. She was "a poster girl for women's aviation," the state report said.
Yet in the 174th, a unit with about 18 F-16 fighters and about 30 personnel, her reception was hardly warm.
