This Female Aviator Intercepted MiG-29s Before Women Were Allowed in Combat

After Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait, Capt. Sheila Chewning was deployed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As a weapons controller, Chewning’s job was to use airborne radars to help friendly fighter pilots find enemy aircraft. Six years earlier, in 1984, she had become one of the first female weapons controllers assigned to fly in the E-3 Sentry, a non-combat aircraft the Air Force had just opened to women.

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Also called an airborne warning and control system — AWACS — the E-3 was an airliner-sized aircraft modified with a gigantic disc-shaped radar antenna mounted on top of the fuselage.

The radar could track aircraft from much longer distances than ground radars and was more versatile for deploying around the world compared to dragging tons of ground-based radar equipment across continents and oceans.

For months, Chewning’s AWACS missions were routine. Then a January 15, 1991, a deadline passed for the Iraqis to depart Kuwait. Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm.

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On January 17, 1991, Chewning, then 29 years old, was the senior controller onboard an AWACS working with eight F-15s as they escorted friendly aircraft to targets in Baghdad and swept the skies for enemy aircraft.

The F-15s had just finished refueling from an airborne tanker when Chewning spotted a dot on her radar console. She identified it as a threat and called on the radio, “We’ve got an enemy.”

Chewning relayed the distance and bearing to the F-15 pilots. The two lead pilots found the enemy and confirmed there were two targets — Russian-built Iraqi MiG-29s — inbound from the north.

Everyone was calm, but Chewning sensed the pilots were preoccupied. She later learned they were distracted by the indications of enemy ground fire that were lighting up the displays in their cockpits.