In 2010, La’Shanda R. Holmes Hawkins became the first African American female helicopter pilot in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). As an officer in that uniformed service, she has amassed more than 2,000 flight hours while helping to carry out search-and-rescue missions; law enforcement operations; and various other duties.
Hawkins, who was born in 1985, grew up in North Carolina. Her formative years were characterized by considerable turbulence and hardship. Hawkins and her younger brother were placed in the foster care system and, in a 2011 interview originally published on the website WomensColleges.org, she recounted her drive and determination to surmount all of the hurdles she faced early on in life. “I was used to people telling me what I couldn’t do,” Hawkins asserted in that interview. “We moved around a lot, and I think it fueled my ambition to live better and work harder. It just gave me more motivation to succeed.”
This motivation resulted in Hawkins graduating magna cum laude from high school. She went on to graduate from Atlanta-based Spelman College in 2007 with a B.A. in psychology. After Hawkins enlisted in the USCG, she was serving on a cutter as an officer candidate when she struck up a conversation with the operations office aboard this vessel. That officer recommended that she look into pursuing aviation.
“It sounded challenging, but something I was up for,” Hawkins said in that 2011 interview. Hawkins also recalled her first time piloting an aircraft. “We did hovering and flying low over the water,” she said. “I was like a little kid. It was like nothing I had ever done or seen before. It was awesome.” Hawkins further noted, “Everyone in the aviation community was so close. There was a real sense of camaraderie of which I wanted to be a part.”
Hawkins has since logged well over 6,800 flight hours with USCG’s largest MH-65 helicopter unit. In addition, she has served as aircraft commander at the USCG air stations in Los Angeles, Atlantic City, and Miami.
In her 2011 interview, Hawkins took time to offer advice for those likewise seeking to achieve ambitious goals. “We have to be willing to do the work,” she asserted. “We must re-hone our focus on the things that matter, rather than be captive from the past. Everything prepares us for something greater.”
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on La’Shanda R. Holmes Hawkins, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La%27Shanda_Holmes
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