Exit
pilot simply because it was the most
difficult way she could challenge
herself within the U.S. Army.
“It wasn’t until I was getting
ready to graduate from college that
we had to pick a branch, and someone leaned down to see what I was
putting on my wish list and said:
‘You know aviation is the toughest
branch to get into, if you don’t put
it first, you’ll never get it.’ And I’m
like, ‘Really? You think I can’t get
it? Okay.’ So I erased it and I put it
first,” she said conspiratorially.
Meeks favors this anecdote
when she gives her presentation to
groups of girls.
“You have to really make it clear
that you can be what you want in
life,” she says. “It’s like they don’t
ever hear it.”
Meeks attended flight school in
1993 and was trained by the U.S.
Army. She dabbled in military intelligence, was an army flight officer
shuttling weapons-laden aircrafts
for the purpose of South American
counter drug operations, and was an
officer in the National Guard. Meeks
left the military after six years of
service and continued her career in
aviation as a commercial airline pilot
for a regional airline in 2000. After
about three years, Meeks started
flying for a fractional airline, which
GREATEST PERSON
OF THE WEEK
HUFFINGTON
10.14.12
is like a timeshare for business jets,
and upon being laid off in 2010, is )