Pilot Breaks The Gender Barrier

She stood out, that’s for sure.

Five hundred men and Kim Olson - confident, ambitious, an eager 21-year-old who had dreams of flying.

All eyes were on her at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas. She talked with her hands on her hips. She walked with a slight swagger.

She also was the first woman there for flight training. And she wasn’t always welcome.

Women had no business flying jets, she was told at flight school in 1979.

“Men were not as educated then,” said Olson, now a lieutenant colonel and a squadron commander at Fairchild Air Force Base. “A woman was threatening to them. … Yes, it was hard and they made me cry, but I stayed strong and got a chance to educate them.”

Olson became a trailblazer.

Despite the verbal abuse she received during her early days in the Air Force, she persisted - not just for herself, she said, but also for the women behind her.

As a mother, wife and high-ranking military officer, Olson will share her story today with dozens of young women at the annual Take Our Daughters to Work luncheon at the Spokane Convention Center.

“When you’re the first at something, you need to learn that you’re always watched and people will look for you to fail,” she said. “But you have to hang tight. … If you quit, you’ll prove them right and there won’t be hope for you or for the women after you.”

Olson, 40, never has been one to give up. Always fearless with an ache to try new things, Olson was encouraged by her grandmother to climb trees “to check out the view” and to take up whatever she wanted.

No one told her “no.”

As a child, her ears rang with praises: “You’re awful smart,” adults said to her. “You have such spirit.”

“You can do anything.”

Except for summers spent on her grandmother’s Iowa farm, Olson spent the first 17 years of her life living in Germany, Bermuda and the Philippines.

Her parents were both teachers for the Department of Defense, so she and her three siblings grew up on military bases.

World travel gave her a cosmopolitan perspective, while the summers in Iowa provided her with stability. From her grandmother and the other women of her family, she discovered her own strength and determination. Her mother, who raised the children by herself after her husband died when Olson was 12, taught her to believe in herself and live with confidence.

”(My character) is not my fault,” she joked. “It’s in my genes. … I had great role models.”

Commands with her presence

Olson, one of only eight female flying squadron commanders in the Air Force, is a rarity in the skies. Of the more than 14,000 pilots in the Air Force, only 2 percent are women. That’s one woman for every 49 men.

Besides her high rank, she’s also earned two master’s degrees and raises two children. She also flies a KC-135 tanker.

“We wanted someone who’s inspirational, who has exceeded the normal boundaries for women,” said Andrea Van Steenkist, coordinator for the Take Our Daughters to Work Luncheon. “She’s very articulate and on the ball. She’s a visionary.”

Olson commands not just with her voice, but with her presence.

She’s tall with square shoulders and a proud, gallant air. But there’s a gentleness about her, too - in her gift of gab, in the way her laughter eases a tension-filled room, in her ability to charm by asking questions instead of focusing on herself.

Her strong yet compassionate personality has earned the trust and respect of many in Fairchild’s 96th Air Refueling Wing.

“She tries to do good things for people,” said Technical Sgt. Dan Sherwood, who’s worked under eight different commanders. “She balances the needs of the base to the needs of her people.”

She commands the same way she parents her two children. She uses guilt, she scolds, she showers them with praise. “I empower them to be responsible but I make them accountable, too,” she said. “Little strokes and they just bloom. They’ll get me the moon.”

Olson has become a mentor to the more than 100 people who call her “boss.” Her door’s always open to them, and many come without hesitation.

“I need advice,” a male member of her squadron said one afternoon as she stepped out of the office. “I need to talk to you about life.”

“Brush your teeth, floss every day,” she joked.

When Olson was named operations officer before she became a squadron commander, her troops gave her a box of Lady Grecian Formula “for the gray hair we’re going to give you,” they said.

Her responsibility isn’t only to the women and men who work for her, she said, but also to their families. Members of her squadron have “restaurant night” once a month when they get together with spouses and children. They also have potlucks and do volunteer work together.

“If I don’t take care of the families, I don’t take care of the squadron,” she said.

Treasuring family

Working moms aim for balance - they want successful careers, but they also desire loving relationships with their partners and children.

Olson’s a role model in that field, too.

More than her command, her 10 medals for excellence and her numerous accomplishments - she treasures her family above all.

She has two paintings from Bali in her office to help her remember. The first is of three tribal women standing side-by-side. They make her think of her sisters, she said. The second is a portrait of two faces, which symbolize her children.

“I always want to be reminded of what’s important in life,” she said. “You can’t take yourself too seriously. My family is the one I’m responsible for.”

Every night, she spends an hour reading out loud to her children - Keegan, 9, Katelynn, 6. That’s after working a 10-hour day at Fairchild. The family eats dinner together every night. On weekends, she coaches soccer and baseball.

“She keeps going even if she’s dead tired,” said her husband, Kent Olson, a pilot for Northwest Airlines.

The two met in Arizona, where they were both flight instructors for the Air Force.

“I was very impressed,” Kent Olson said, recalling the day she came into his squadron. “She was a new item. Everybody eyed her with a little suspicion and awe at the same time.”

Apparently, Kim was impressed with him, too. When she first laid eyes on Kent Olson, she immediately thought: “That man will be the father of my children.”

Their marriage is a partnership, they said.

He’s her best friend and one of her biggest fans, Kent Olson said. He was never threatened by her success and always encouraged her.

When Kim Olson’s career was on the rise and the two had assignments on separate bases, Kent decided to quit the Air Force so he could be with her. At the beginning of the year, when Kim Olson was deployed in Saudi Arabia for 60 days, Kent asked Northwest Airlines for a six-week leave so he could take care of the children.

“Women can have it all, but they can’t have it all at the same time,” Kim Olson said.

Get an education, she advised, but don’t have kids while you’re still in school. That’s not fair to anyone, said Olson, who was married at 28 and had her first child at 30.

She also encourages women to find mentors and learn from them. “There are still men who are so uncomfortable” with women in the workforce, she said. “Your job is to do your job, not convince them. Those people will either come around or get passed by.”