Source: Jamaica ObserverReported: Thursday June 30, 2005
JAMAICAN-BORN Jeanine McIntosh, 26, last Friday became the first black female aviator in the 215-year history of the United States Coast Guard.
As a junior grade lieutenant, McIntosh received her wings last Friday at an awards ceremony at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas.
She began her training at the base in January of this year, where she learned the instruments, flight patterns and went on missions.
McIntosh is currently doing further training in Little Rock, Arkansas, until September before taking up her assignment in Hawaii.
A graduate of Florida International University (FIU), she studied International Business. She also attended Miami Killian High School.
McIntosh attended Vaz Preparatory School in Kingston before migrating with her family to Canada where they settled before relocating to South Florida.
In an interview with JIS News, McIntosh spoke of her passion for aviation from an early age when she resided in the Portmore community, watching the airplanes soaring overhead.
After graduating from FIU in 2001, she decided to pursue her dream of flying. She occasionally visited the North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines before she began flying lessons there.
As a flight instructor at Opa-Locka Airport in North Miami, McIntosh said that she observed the US Coast Guard carriers there regularly "and I felt a deeper fascination to fly one of those planes".
McIntosh said she was honoured to have earned this achievement after a challenging schedule.
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