A Zulu princess and the mother of famed African Warrior Shaka-Zulu was a warrior princess who fought slave-traders in 19th century Africa and raised her son to be a leader and a warrior. In fact, when Shaka became King, he established an all-female regiment in her memory.
3. Lyudmila Pavlichenko an Accomplished Sniper in Russia’s Red Army
Pavlichenko was among the first round of volunteers at the recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned to the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division. Pavlichenko had the option to become a nurse but refused; “I joined the army when woman were not yet accepted”.There she became one of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army, of whom about 500 ultimately survived the war. As a sniper, she made her first two kills near Belyayevka, using a Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle with 3.5 telescopic sight.
4. Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney
Late in the morning of the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base and ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day’s fourth hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington. Penney, one of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop it.
The one thing she didn’t have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a hostile aircraft.
Except her own plane. So that was the plan.
Because the surprise attacks were unfolding, in that innocent age, faster than they could arm war planes, Penney and her commanding officer went up to fly their jets straight into a Boeing 757.
“We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,” Penney recalls of her charge that day. “I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.”
5. Corporal Niva Hazon of the IDF
When corporal Niva Hazon climbs on the turret of the MERKAVA 4 tank she cannot hide her excitement. “I have not been on a tank for a month now,” she disclosed, “most of the communication instruction is carried out in the classroom. We have special simulators on which we can demonstrate the tank’s communication system. Only after extensive practice in the classroom we actually go in the tank”. After she easily leaps into the tank, Niva gives us a comprehensive explanation about the communications equipment. “We were taught every possible detail about this equipment. This way we earn the respect of the trainees, and motivates them to learn. The instructor is an important part of producing a combatant”
Stare Down
I would suspect that these ladies would most not approve of lowering standards for women in the U.S. Army Rangers and I would love to see a few of them stare down the bureaucrats and ticket punchers that are forcing a square peg through a round hole and hear them ask “WTF over?”
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