Yow, mama! That's quite a backstory. Back in the 'Cold War' days, we flew Sierra Hotel Convair 'Sixes' (F-106A/B) out of alert barns at Minot AFB in 'Why Not Minot' NoDak winters. Our birds were Mach 2.5 capable and getting slammed in the ass by a Six's Pratt & Whitney J75-P-17 afterburner was pretty damned thrilling (almost as much fun, so my 'Nasal Radiator' friends tell me, as a Tomcat carrier cat-launch was, LoL). We had a saying that 'Flying a Six is the most fun you can have with your clothes on...'

Of course, back then, we still didn't have any female pilots flying hot hardware but I don't think if we had, I'd have resented it one teeny bit, since I very much agree with your statement "Get your game UP!"

I never had a chance to fly my personal dream machine (the Lockheed 'Viper' (AKA, depending on the pilot and his personal skill set: "The Widow Maker" and F-104 Starfighter), but the Six was about as good as it got back in those days. Many years later, in my associations with various air museums as a human factors and life support wonk, I spent some time writing up lengthy histories of both birds (available for viewing at my writing website, https://www.authorsden.com/kalikianokalei ) and it is a notable footnote in the history of our NASA 104s that renown (and highly controversial) aviatrix Jackie Cocharan in 1964 set the standing women’s world speed record of 1,429 miles (2,300 km) per hour in an F-104G Starfighter (with General Chuck Yeager along as a chaperone, LoL). Love her or hate her, she was special and definitely had Tom Wolfe's 'Right Stuff'.

Women long deserved to have the glass ceiling over them broken (by a sonic boom) and were absolutely unfairly denied the chance to show the world, early on, that they could walk the walk and talk the talk equal to the very best male pilots around. They also were unfairly denied the chance to orbit the Earth (reference the so-called 'Mercury 13' women astronaut candidates whose ambitions were shot down prematurely), but that's another separate, sad story.

Then there's Edwards icon Pancho Barnes, a legend herself, and Bessie Coleman, who first won her pilot's license in 1921, and so many, many more excellent women pilots...but I'm sure you're familiar with all of them. I'm also sure you'd be great fun to 'hanger-fly' with, Julia. Thanks for sharing these insights into the shared world of flight! Aim high!

PS: I'm now 75 but I can still crank out 100 pushups, but like excelling in the realm of manned flight, it's not done without a lifelong commitment to 'Getting the game on!' A hui hou, -K2