Carey Lohrenz


Carey Lohrenz is a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy who was the first fully qualified female naval aviator to fly the F-14 Tomcat in the U.S. military.

Biography

Lohrenz was born in 1968 in Racine, Wisconsin, to Robert E. Dunai and Carol T. Dunai. Her father served in the military as a United States Marine Corps aviator.
Raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Lohrenz graduated from Pulaski High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and played volleyball, basketball, and softball.
Lohrenz is a 1990 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where she was a three-time varsity letter winner in rowing. In 1991 Lohrenz graduated from Aviation Officer Candidate School at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Commissioned an ensign in June 1991, Lohrenz was sent to flight school at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, and then to Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, for advanced jet training.
Earning her wings in June 1993, Lohrenz receiving her Naval Aviator Wings of Gold from retired Commander Randall 'Duke' Cunningham, one of the Navy's two fighter aces during the Vietnam War and later a U.S. congressman. She received follow-on orders to the F-14 Fleet Replacement Squadron, Fighter Squadron 124 at Naval Air Station Miramar, California. She was one of the two first female Naval Aviators in the U.S. Navy to train as fighter pilots in the F-14 Tomcat.
In 1996 Lohrenz brought suit against the Center for Military Readiness for publishing a report that stated she and the other initial female F-14 pilot had received preferential treatment in training. That suit was summarily dismissed in 2002 by a U.S. District Judge. Upon appeal, in 2003 the D.C. Circuit Court held that, owing to her being one of the first female combat pilots, she was in fact a "voluntary limited-purpose public figure" under defamation law. This ruling, affirming the previous ruling, prevented her from challenging the publishing of her military training records, or inferences derived, solely on the grounds of personal privacy.
Resigning from the U.S. Navy in 1999, Lohrenz began a career as a leadership expert and professional speaker. She wrote a book, Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons From the Flight Deck, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in 2014, about her experiences as a female aviator.

Personal life

On July 2, 1994 she married Donovan Lohrenz, who had been one of her instructors during Navy flight training. They have four children.

Television appearances

Lohrenz has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, and NPR.