Jane Skiles O'Dea
Jane Skiles O'Dea (April 11, 1950 – June 22, 2022) was a pioneering U.S. Navy pilot. In 1974 she was one of the first six women to earn Navy flight wings and the first woman to qualify in the C-130 Hercules. She also became the Navy’s first female flight instructor and the first woman to command a unit and reach the rank of captain.
Born Jane Skiles in Ames, Iowa, she grew up in Des Moines. Her father was a WWII naval aviator and her mother a naval supply officer. She studied political science at Iowa State University. She joined the Navy in 1972 and trained at Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and Pensacola, Florida. She earned her wings in April 1974.
During her career she logged more than 3,000 flight hours in airplanes such as the C-130, C-1A, T-34, and EC-130Q, serving with VR-24, VT-2, AVT-16 (aboard USS Lexington), and VQ-4. She spoke about career limits caused by no-combat rules.
O'Dea retired as a captain on April 11, 1997, and was the Navy’s senior woman aviator at retirement. She died June 22, 2022, in Saint Louis, Missouri, at age 72.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 01:10 (CET).