Carey Lohrenz

Carey Lohrenz (born 1968) is a former Lieutenant in the United States Navy who was the first fully qualified female naval aviator to fly the F-14 Tomcat in the United States Military.

Lohrenz was born in 1968 in Racine, Wisconsin to Robert E. Dunai and Carol T. Dunai. Her father served in the military as a United States Marine Corps aviator.

Raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Lohrenz graduated from Pulaski High School where she was a member of the National Honor Society, played volleyball, basketball and softball.

Lohrenz is a 1990 graduate of the University of Wisconsin where she was a 3 time varsity letter winner in rowing. In 1991, Carey Lohrenz graduated from Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida. Commissioned an Ensign in June 1991, Lohrenz was sent to flight school at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas and then to Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas for Advanced Jet Training.

Earning her wings in June 1993, Lohrenz was one of the top graduates receiving her Naval Aviator Wings of Gold from Randall ‘Duke’ Cunningham. She received follow on orders to Naval Air Station Miramar, California. She was one of the two first candidates in the US Navy to become a female fighter pilot in the F-14 Tomcat.

Due to her being one of the first female combat pilots, the D.C. Circuit court held that she was a 'voluntary limited-purpose public figure' under defamation law which limited her privacy rights and ability to defend against accusations.

Leaving the United States Navy in 1999, Lohrenz began a career as a leadership expert and professional speaker. She wrote a book, Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in 2014, about her experiences as a female aviator.

She has four children.

Lohrenz has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, and NPR.

• ABC News: Female Navy Flier: Videos Taken Out of Context
• NPR: For Family, For Country: Military Moms Do It All - Lt. Carey Lohrenz (ret.), Lt. Cmdr. Linda Maloney (ret.) and Pilar Arteaga, a petty officer first class in the Navy, discuss parenting in the military.