How
This Female Pilot Beat the Odds and Flew for the Air Force Thunderbirds
Major Michelle Curran, United States Air Force Air
Demonstration Squadron ‘Thunderbirds’ lead solo pilot, takes a photo with a fan
after performing at the Great Tennessee Air Show in Smyrna, Tennessee, June 5,
2021. (Staff Sergeant Laurel Richards/U.S. Air Force photo)
Posted: September 25, 2025 --- Military.com | By Stephen Ruiz
Published September 23, 2025, at 1:30
pm
The email arrived in Michelle Curran’s inbox at a most inconvenient time, shortly before she was to report to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico for her next assignment. Under almost any other circumstance, Curran would have ignored it. This email – a final callout for applications to join the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds air demonstration team – could not be so easily dismissed, however. Curran wasn’t sure whether she should apply, so she asked her supervisor for guidance.
If he would have told her to honor her commitment to Holloman, Curran said recently on The Fighter Pilot Podcast, she would have accepted his advice and reluctantly moved on. Instead, he couldn’t have been more encouraging. "I think you would be perfect for that job,” Curran recalled of that conversation to podcast host Vincent Aiello – a former Navy fighter pilot. "What can I do to help you get your application in on time?”
One of a Select Few Female Thunderbirds
Major Michelle Curran, U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team pilot, prepares for departure from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, August 6, 2020. (Staff Sergeant Ericha Fitzgerald/U.S. Air Force photo). Suitably inspired, Curran rushed to beat the deadline to apply. The airman survived an intensive interview process and never made it to Holloman, relocating to where the Thunderbirds train at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.
Curran flew the F-16 Fighting Falcon for the Thunderbirds
from 2019 through 2021, including a stint as the squadron’s lead solo pilot.
Only 7 women have flown for the Thunderbirds since they were established in
1953 -- 6 years after the Air Force became its own service branch -- and Curran
was just the 2nd female to fill the lead solo pilot’s
position. Captain Samantha Weeks was
the 1st, in 2007 and 2008.
5 Things to Know About the Thunderbirds
They were activated on June 1, 1953, at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. 3 years later, they moved to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. They fly about 75 demonstrations annually and have never scrubbed a performance because of maintenance issues. They have performed in front of more than 300 million fans in every U.S. state and 58 other countries. In 1987, they became the 1st U.S. military demonstration team to perform in China. Officers normally serve a 2-year commitment to the Thunderbirds. For enlisted personnel, it’s 3 or 4years.
Source: Air Force
Any airman, though, soon realizes that their aerial skills will be tested like never before during their time with the Thunderbirds. "We always joke with the new hires: ‘You have to kill your survival instinct,’” Curran said on the podcast. "The opposing passes, head-on at each other, passing 70 feet apart, 500 knots each, no one is comfortable doing that.” Being a Thunderbird is much more than thrilling thousands of fans at air shows, Curran said.
In many ways, the pilots are the faces of the Air Force, doing meet-and-greets with fans and visiting schools and hospitals. Throw in the hours of travel and practice, and flying a fighter jet at speeds exceeding 700 mph (and everything that comes with it) is not always as fun as it seems. "You’re in one of the coolest jobs that so many people want,” she said. "It’s an honor to be in that role, but it’s not an easy schedule.”
The FBI’s Loss Was the Thunderbirds’ Gain
Curran wasn’t one of those youths who grew up wanting to fly. Her goal was to become an FBI agent, and she majored in criminal justice at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. To help pay for her education, she joined ROTC. Early on, she figured she would graduate, fulfill her military commitment, then apply for a spot at the FBI Academy. That all changed when she visited Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and saw 2 F-15 Eagles take off late in the day.
The image was so picturesque and mesmerizing, it inspired Curran to alter her career plans. "Jet noise vibrates your whole body,” Curran recalled on The Fighter Pilot Podcast. "[It’s] deafening, goose bumps, visceral reaction, orange afterburner flame against the Florida setting sun. I’m just like, ‘Oh, holy shit, how do I do that?’” From that point, Curran yearned to fly -- fighter jets, in particular. She graduated flight school in 2011 but struggled after she was assigned to Misawa Air Base in Japan.
Dealing with the complexities of flying the F-16, Curran doubted herself. Her confidence was so shaken that she considered quitting. "I remember feeling trapped because I had a 10-year contract,” Curran recalled. "They just spent a million-plus dollars to train me, and then I was just so adverse to the idea of failing and the shame I associated with that.
Even though I felt trapped and I wanted to leave and didn’t love this like I thought I was going to, the idea of saying that and acting on it felt so shameful.” Curran’s comfort level improved after she moved in 2015 to serve as an F-16 instructor and flight commander at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas. She was there for 3 years before the opportunity to join the Thunderbirds came along. She never would have made it that far if she had walked away. "Sometimes, you just have to experience the hard stuff,” Curran said.
Here is the Thunderbirds’ 2025 schedule.
