As a soldier in the Massachusetts National Guard (the Bay State’s component of the U.S. Army National Guard), Marisol A. Chalas achieved an aviation milestone by becoming the first Latina in the entire National Guard to pilot a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. (That longtime four-blade, twin-engine utility helicopter is manufactured for the Army by the Connecticut-based company Sikorsky Aircraft.) “When I was in flight school, there were over 3,000 pilots that flew Black Hawks,” Chalas said while recalling the significant odds she was up against at that time. “Out of those, there were 120 females.”
Chalas was born in the city of Bani in the southern region of the Dominican Republic. When her parents immigrated to the United States in search of better quality-of-life opportunities for the whole family, Chalas and her two sisters remained in the Dominican Republic and lived on a temporary basis with their grandparents. In 1982 – when Chalas was only nine years old – she and her sisters joined their mother and father in Boston after both parents had secured employment and a home there.
During a 2022 interview with the news website LatinTRENDS, Marisol Chalas emphasized how her parents have been her greatest role models when it comes to drive and determination. She said, “We learned very young that in order to be successful you have to work hard at it, nothing is handed to you.”
Chalas’ military career began in 1990 when she enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen four years later. In 2001, Chalas was commissioned a second lieutenant in the aviation branch from the Georgia Military Institute’s Officer Candidate School in Marietta. The following year, she was one of the top graduates at the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker (now Fort Novosel) in Alabama.
Chalas’ overall educational achievements include not only all of that aviation training but also a B.S. in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, in 1996; an MBA from the J. Mack Robinson School of Business at Georgia State University in Atlanta in 2008; and an M.S. in legislative affairs from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 2017.
Chalas transferred from the Massachusetts National Guard to the U.S. Army Reserve in 2008. She continues to serve in that reserve force. Over the years, Chalas’ civilian work experience has included positions with the General Electric Company and Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.
In her 2022 interview with LatinTRENDS, Chalas also took time to discuss her ethnic heritage and its significance to her. “Hispanic Americans make up the blueprint of a diverse and unique culture,” she asserted. “They have often made gut-wrenching sacrifices, faced isolation, experienced persecution, and dealt with discrimination, all to make a new life for themselves and their families.” Chalas further stated, “We are stronger because of diversity. We must strive for equality.”
Photo Credit: U.S. Army
Additional information on Marisol A. Chalas is available at https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/latina-pilot-who-broke-barriers and https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/four-history-making-latinos-you-should-know
Transportation History 
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