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
I mean, it's absolutely, I think, appalling. I think it's completely shameful. The idea that our federal government is willing to go back and selectively delete and selectively edit out, you know, specific service member and veteran stories is mind blowing to me. And keep in mind, they weren't they're not removing, deleting or editing out, you know,
things that were misinformation or were factually incorrect. They're literally taking away stories of facts-based honorable service. And I literally still haven't been able to get my arms around it. It's ridiculous.
You can either do it or you can't. So exactly. Yeah.
Well, I mean, when you look at, you know, former secretary of defenses and their qualifications, there's certainly a major gap there. I always want to honor anybody who is willing to serve their country. But the fact of the matter is he never really reached the levels of, if you will, executive or strategic leadership to have, I think, the experience or the wisdom.
to make, I think, more informed decisions, if I'm putting it nicely. There's a couple of things I think going on here, right? Three things that I can think of. There's the censorship, which just fundamentally stifles critical thinking, right? It goes against free speech and it erodes democracy. I think there's this idea that you touched on, which is
why we need to, I think, shine a light on firsts and when barriers are broken, right?
It's so that we remember that there was a time when there weren't women flying fighter aircraft, when there was a time when we had a segregated military, you know, that we honored those firsts so that we never go back and so that we keep the door open so that there can be another Krusty and another Fifi and another Chunk, right, to come along as second, thirds, and fourths.
But you're hitting on a third point, which is important, which is the inspirational aspect of it. Just like you, Man, I looked up to the women Air Force service pilots of World War II, right? Knowing their story in middle school meant something to me. I mean, I remember reading about Robin Olds, right? And Jappy James, right? The greatest, one of the greatest fighter pilots of all time.
And those stories inspired me. And then I find myself going to the Air Force Academy the very, you know, right at the time that they're lifting the ban on women to be fighter pilots and Jeannie Leavitt, right? Right. America's first woman fighter pilot as a lieutenant is all over the news. And I'm thinking, man, you know, she's doing it. And that means I can do it.
And that that idea that representation matters is so fact space. I spent the first half of my career, Krusty, and I don't know if you felt this way. I hated nothing more than being called bad. the woman fighter pilot. I couldn't stand being called the first Thunderbird pilot.
I wanted to just take that woman qualifier and just throw it away because I just wanted to be known as a great fighter pilot or a good Thunderbird pilot. And then I went to my very first air show. So I'm mid-career now, 30 years old, senior captain. I go to my first air show and I'm on the autograph line for the first time. First of all, I'm exhausted. because I worked hard on that air show.
You know, second of all, you know, I'm just, I'm dripping sweat. I was sitting there thinking, hey, that went well, like nothing bad happened. I was, you know, it was just an adrenaline dump. And now I've got to go to the autograph line and interact with people and be energetic and happy.
And I remember being on that autograph line and there was all sorts of media there because first woman done a real pilot, right? And I'm looking down at the other male pilots, great teammates, fantastic, fantastic men, fantastic friends. They've got like 10, 20 people standing in front of them. And all of a sudden, it was like slow motion, you guys.
I looked up and in front of me, there was a line easily 100 deep. This was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. And what do you think the demographic of that line looked like? All girls. Women. Young women, right?
You know, from the ages of about 10 to 16. And they were looking at me as if I had hung the moon, right? And it was in that moment that I realized it means something to see someone who looks like you 16. And it wasn't about me or my name. It's that my presence... you know, my presence allowed them to believe in their own dreams, right?
That whether it was flying aircraft or joining the military or not, that these things were possible. And so for you to say we're very lucky is so true, right? Talk about being born in the right country at the right time.
My successes that are on that, you know, resume or whatever are the result of TLC, timing, luck, and circumstance, and a heck of a lot of hard work by other people who invested and mentored me.
You know, I appreciate what you're saying and I hope you are hearing in that story on that day at age 30, I evolved, right? That day I realized it does mean something. And now it's on me. It's my responsibility now, you know, to live up to this and that I need to be accountable to these young faces, you know, that are looking up to me. And over the last 20 years, I've lived my life differently.
being very proud to be the first woman Thunderbird pilot, being very proud to be one of the first women fighter pilots. And getting back to Secretary Hegseth and the current president, I think what they've done is they're kind of conflating this idea of DEI, which apparently my definition of it and theirs must be quite different.
The definition of DEI, they're conflating it with this idea of quotas, right? And they're saying quotas for everything, quotas and DEI are the same thing, and they're absolutely not. Look, I think there are reasonable critiques of quota systems. I also know that there are times, look at corporate America. I work in corporate America now, right?
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