Nicole Malachowski
speaker
750 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2025
last heard 18 Sep
Nicole Malachowski’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
It was embarrassing and an embarrassing story to tell. But at the end of the day, it's kind of funny. My maiden name was Ellingwood. Married name is Malachowski. And so on that grade sheet, there's an Ellingwood and a Malachowski and a grade in red ink. So I did that sortie again.
Well, I didn't get a call sign from that specific event. But as you know, call signs are an amazing fighter pilot tradition, right? You get those when your squadron is ready to fly with you in war. And, of course, there's no higher compliment than someone saying, I want you to be my wingman. The other thing call signs do is they're always making fun of somebody, right?
A mistake you made, a personality quirk, something like that. And my call sign, which, of course, striked fear in the hearts of enemies everywhere, was Fifi. F.I.F.I. And I'll be honest, the full story is certainly not safe for work. So I'm going to spare spare the podcast here. I promise someday I'll write the full story in my book.
But as Amy can probably recall, you know, when you start flying as a woman in the fighter squadron in the 90s, right, I was 23 years old, 23 pounds lighter. I walked into that squadron and the guys were like, what the heck is this? Is she strong enough? Is she confident enough? Is she going to mess up the bro culture?
And so during that year that I was getting combat mission ready, I just was really hard on myself, was trying really hard to fit in, I think, and to be the best wingman that I could be. And essentially at the end of it, the guys were like, you're kind of like this cute little Fifi poodle, but if people bend down to pet you, they'll attack. You'll attack. Yeah. That's great. Side story.
The actual details are a little more off color.
That's great. And what's the name of your book? I don't have my book right now. I'm working on it. I don't have it yet. But I will tell you, I am working on a book that's very important to me that is not about me. It's about the Women Air Force Service Pilots of World War II and specifically the pursuit of the Congressional Gold Medal.
And so after 15, it's been 15 years since they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. I'm going back and writing about the small team that worked together to make that happen, especially just to keep the lost memory alive, especially in light of what we're seeing today. Right. Which is this and the removal. you know, of servicemember and veteran stories.
Well, there was indeed a small team of us that made that happen. I was proud to be a part of that team. I can tell you that by being a White House fellow at the time, I had access to doors that I could finally walk through. You know, there were people who were working on this or had ideas like this for quite some time, but people just didn't have the access.
So when I found myself in a position to utilize that, you know, for good, then I teamed up with these other folks who hopefully everyone will read about in the book. And we were able to get that congressional gold medal through.
Yeah. You know, you got to go home and talk about the days flying with someone who understands it.
Yeah. So in 2011, I commanded the 333rd Fighter Squadron, which was actually the FT or the Flying Training Unit. So I had a cadre of like the most elite instructor pilots in the world. And we were putting through several classes, you know, at a time of F-15E students. We did have two operational squadrons on base there that were deploying as part of the air expeditionary wing.
And sometimes, interestingly, instructor pilots from the FTU, from my squadron, would actually augment the squadrons that were deploying operationally. So that was interesting to see.
Oh, you got that qualifier just.
Remember, that's the aircraft I could employ fully as a complete weapon system.
Oh, it was a heck of a lot of fun. Look, the F-16 is highly maneuverable, super agile, much more so than the F-15E Strike Eagle, right? It's perfectly suited for the things that you do, of course, in an air show. And I would be lying if I said it wasn't an absolute hoot to fly the F-16. I mean, it's like a little sports car.
And, you know, when you're five foot four like me, it fits you like a glove, right? I mean, you know, in an F-15E, you can play tennis in the cockpit, but in an F-16, it fit me like a glove. I really felt like I was, you know, part of the aircraft, though.
How many G's did you get up to?
And now... But hey, look, I flew the F-15U, the F-16, like not bad for a gal that, you know, went to high school in Las Vegas, Nevada.
And, you know, like what a great country I was born into, right, as a woman, you know, to be born into a country where I was afforded these kinds of opportunities, where we have this kind of technology, you know, where I was able to get over a thousand hours in two of the world's greatest fighters. So I remain very grateful.
Showing 661–680 of 750 · page 34 of 38
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