“I think what kept me on the straight and narrow is that I didn’t give myself any other options,” Kimbrell said. She did all of this despite people telling her as a child that there were no female fighter pilots, people asking her about all the what-ifs that would derail her plans. Eventually, she was accepted into the Air Force Academy. She joined the Civil Air Patrol, worked at air shows, had her first flying lesson at 14, and earned her private pilot’s license. In fourth grade, Kimbrell decided she wanted to become a fighter pilot. “So I started to look at the jets and flying fighters.” “I decided to focus on something I could do every day versus maybe going to the moon one time … which would be awesome, but it’s just one time,” the major said. But as she got older and did more research into joining the astronaut corps, she realized the career wasn’t as exciting as she wanted it to be. While in kindergarten, for example, she decided she wanted to be an astronaut, so she wrote a letter to NASA asking how she could join the program. On top of that family modus operandi, Kimbrell had a goal-driven personality from an early age. “If you got your education, you could do whatever you wanted to do. “(Education) was the thing that opened doors,” Kimbrell said. That focus on education was a big part of life for Kimbrell and her three older siblings as they spent their school years in Parker. Their hard work and dedication paid off in her father earning a degree from Howard University and a doctorate from Purdue University, which in turn earned him a job offer in Parker, Colo. Norman Ng A Qui migrated to the United States for educational opportunities and became naturalized U.S. Her mother and father, Eve Blackman Ng A Qui and Dr. Kimbrell was born in Lafayette, Ind., the youngest of four children, to Guyanese parents. She is stationed at Nellis Air Force Base where she is a member of the 78th Attack Squadron, an Air Force Reserve Command unit under the 926th Wing, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., where she serves as an MQ-9 Pilot and mission commander. She flew the F-16 Fighting Falcon during combat missions in Operation Northern Watch over northern Iraq. Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell is the first female African American fighter pilot in the history of U.S.
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