Pioneer Female Pilot Buried With Military Honors
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WASHINGTON — Under rainy skies, with the Navy’s top brass in attendance, a pioneer female fighter pilot was buried Monday in a quiet military ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
An honor guard carried the silver coffin of Lt. Kara Hultgreen to her grave. An earlier service had been held in San Antonio.
A bugler played taps, the Navy band played “America the Beautiful” and a rifle team fired three volleys in tribute.
Hultgreen, 29, one of the first two women to qualify for Navy carrier operations in the F-14A jet fighter, crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Oct. 25, about 50 miles off San Diego. The cause of the crash is still to be determined.
Before she left the grave site, Hultgreen’s mother, Sally Spears, lightly touched the coffin and then gave a long glance back, all the while clutching the flag that had covered it.
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