In her debut as co-host of the Steady State Sentinel, retired Space Force Colonel Bree Fram joins Lauren Anderson to interview retired Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Ruttenber, a senior pilot with over 3,000 flight hours. Their conversation explores the effects on combat readiness of hidden barriers, the importance of data over anecdotes, the chilling effect of censorship and erasure of military history (including the Tuskegee Airmen and The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs,) and why veterans have a duty to speak out. Lt. Col. Ruttenber closes with a powerful message: sometimes “surviving is the ultimate rebellion” when the system wasn’t designed for you.
Lt. Col. Ruttenber shares her journey from being told she was “too short” to fly to becoming a driving force behind the Department of Defense’s first maternity flight suit and the Equality for Military Mothers Amendment. She reveals how an outdated 1960s anthropometric study based on the “average male” excluded 44% of women from aviation — and 74% of Black women. She explains how changing a single policy gave the Air Force “30 instant pilots” worth of man-hours.
See episode transcript or watch the video here:
Guest info:
Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Jessica Ruttenber is a senior pilot with over 3,000 flight hours in the United States Air Force. She championed inclusivity and dismantled barriers for women and minorities in military aviation, leading to the Department of Defense’s first maternity flight suit and the Equality for Military Mothers Amendment in the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act, protecting over 200,000 service members from pregnancy discrimination. She is the founder of Level Up Aviation, a nonprofit empowering underserved communities to access aviation opportunities.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.
