Today’s must-read: AP on our local Marine One
The Associated Press’s Darlene Superville has done a really nice piece on Jennifer Grieves, an Alameda resident and longtime Marine who has flown Marine One – aka the President’s helicopter – over the past 14 months, making her the first woman to do so.
Grieves, who’s been a Marine for two decades, has ferried presidents Obama and Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney in 40 helicopter runs over her time piloting Marine One, which ended Thursday, Superville writes. On that day, her tenure ended with another first: The first trip with an all-female crew.
Major Grieves, who’s headed to Leadership School in Quantico, said she was a “nervous wreck” when she first flew Bush (she said he and Obama were “great”) and that Obama gave her one of his personal Presidential coins.
“Yesterday, I realized that it might be significant, and it might be important,” Grieves told the AP. “And I guess, a little bit, I’m kind of proud of myself, too.”
