As a child, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Rochelle Kimbrell ’98, dreamt that one day she would defy gravity, taking her rightful place in the sky among the stars.----more----

SUMMARY

Rochelle Kimbrell shared her journey of growing up as a young black girl in a small town in Colorado who dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot. Despite being told she couldn't or shouldn't pursue this goal, she developed a strong work ethic and passion for flying from a young age.

She meticulously planned her path, gaining leadership experience in Civil Air Patrol and excelling academically to earn an appointment to the Air Force Academy. Kimbrell overcame challenges like failing a class by changing majors and learning from mistakes.

As one of the first female fighter pilots, Kimbrell faced obstacles like lack of proper gear and medical issues. She discussed the difficulties of balancing pregnancy/motherhood with her flying career due to changing policies.

After 13 years of active duty service, Kimbrell transitioned to the reserves and pursued public speaking and entrepreneurship. This allowed her to find fulfillment in empowering and mentoring others, especially young minorities.

OUR FAVORITE QUOTES

"My parents always feel this to just just go out and chase our dreams and follow our dreams, and, you know, to forge our own paths and to be strong."

"I think we plan our vacations really well. But I don't think we plan our lives really well."

"You've got to have a plan for your life. Like yes, you can change course 100%. But you've got to have first vision, so that you can start working towards it and figure out what it's going to take."

"You learn that there are many paths that can lead there. And so it was it was okay. And that everybody's gonna have a setback."

"I want to impact people's lives. I want to empower people to be their best selves."

- Lt. Col. (Ret.) Rochelle Kimbrell '89

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CHAPTERS

00:00 :  Introduction and Background

06:34 :  Overcoming Doubts and Breaking Barriers

25:43 :  Challenges Faced by Female Fighter Pilots

32:50 :  The Importance of Mentorship

49:33 :  Dare to Dream and Pursue Your Goals

SOME TAKEAWAYS

- Believe in yourself and pursue your dreams, even when others doubt you.

- Having a plan and being willing to pivot can lead to unexpected opportunities.

- Overcoming challenges and setbacks is part of the journey to success.

- Representation matters - being a role model can inspire others to pursue their own dreams. Female fighter pilots faced challenges in terms of camaraderie, gear, and facilities.

- Balancing motherhood and a career as a fighter pilot was challenging.

- Mentorship is important, and mentors don't have to look like you.

- It's important to dare to dream and pursue your goals, despite obstacles and failures.

- Planning your life and having a clear vision of where you want to go is crucial.

COL. KIMBRELL'S BIO

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Rochelle Kimbrell is a charismatic trailblazer whose road to becoming the US military’s first Black female fighter pilot started when she was a little girl growing up in Parker, Colorado. She had a dream that was beyond the imagination of most. In a time before women were allowed to fly fighter aircraft and women being in combat was literally against the law, those boundaries were no deterrent for Rochelle. Powered by a dream, Rochelle crafted a plan to achieve this dream and the journey to success through failure took commitment. The story of her journey is legendary and can ignite a flame in any individual or team and challenge them to dare to dream again. Rochelle not only broke several glass ceilings in the F-16 community, her experiences transformed into operations on the ground and then on to the highly technological remotely piloted aircraft. Rochelle has over 2100 hours piloting military aircraft and over 975 combat and combat support hours.

Rochelle retired from the Air Force in 2020 after almost 22 years of service.  She is a full time public servant pouring her time and energy back into her community. She volunteers as an orientation pilot in the Civil Air Patrol, shares her story and teaches leadership and success principles to individuals and organizations across the country through her Dare To Dream (Dare-2-Dream.com) speaking platform and is also a full time mother to 2 amazing boys and wife to an awesome husband.

- Copy credit:  AthenasVoiceUSA.com

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TRANSCRIPT

OUR SPEAKERS

Our guest, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Rochelle Kimbrell '98 | Our host is Naviere Walkewicz '99

Naviere Walkewicz

Col. Kimbrell, welcome to Long Blue Leadership and thank you for being here today.

Rochelle Kimbrell

Thank you so much, Naviere.  That’s an awesome intro and I’m really excited to here today talking with my alma mater.

Naviere Walkewicz  00:49

That's right. Well, that's my pleasure. And you know, I think it's always especially wonderful when I get to speak to someone that I was at the Academy with at the same time. So, we’re kind of going back in the day. And we can say that because, you know, we're amongst friends here. But this is a great opportunity to share with our listeners a little bit about you and your journey. So, we're really excited.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Rochelle Kimbrell  01:08

Awesome, excited to be here.

Naviere Walkewicz  01:09

Well, let's go back in time a little bit. Let's go back to you as a little girl. Can you share a little bit with our listeners about where you grew up, what your family life was like? Take us on the journey.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Rochelle Kimbrell  01:21

Take you on the journey. All right. So absolutely. So, my family actually migrated here from Guyana in South America. So, my dad moved out here for college, went to Howard, and then he was getting his Ph.D. in Indiana — Purdue — when I was born. So, I'm the youngest of four. And we moved around a little bit, and then we ended up settling in Colorado. So, I actually grew up in Parker, which is only about an hour down the road, 45 minutes down the road from the Academy. And, you know, we grew up in a time where — Parker now is a thriving metropolis, but it was a really small horse town. Growing up where we were one of two Black families that I was aware of growing up, and I was the only Black person in my class from kindergarten all the way through graduation. So, it was an interesting time; it was an interesting town. But I'm an animal fanatic. I grew up showing horses and showing dogs and you know, when I tell people about where I grew up, and I talk about, you know, Parker had one stoplight and Main Street had a saloon with still saloon doors on it. We used to ride our horses down to the candy store, the Mountain Man Fruit and Candy store, and there was a hitching post outside. And people were like, “You're fr