Vanessa Dobos

In 2003, Airman 1st Class Vanessa Dobos became the first female aerial gunner in the U.S. Air Force. This position was previously closed to women. She trained with the 58th Training Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Her first duty station was at Nellis AFB in Nevada, and she served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Early life Dobos was raised in Valley View, Ohio.

Pave Hawk Crash - Afghanistan As a Senior Airman, Dobos was the gunner on a Pave Hawk crew that was assigned to the 66th Rescue Squadron in October 2004.

On 20 October 2004, her aircraft was on a mission to medivac a local Afghani national who had been shot while working as a member of the Joint Election Monitoring Board overseeing Afghan elections. While in a hover over the LZ, the aircraft encountered severe brownout conditions at a higher altitude than is common. When the pilot attempted to leave the dust cloud, the aircraft struck the side of a nearby hill and slid up the hill before rolling down it 5-7 times, coming to rest on its right side approximately below the point of impact.

The flight engineer, Jesse M. Samek of Rogers, Arkansas, was killed in the crash.