U.S. Air Force Captain Christina “Thumper” Hopper is the first and only black female F-16 Fighting Falcon instructor pilot at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. She’s also the first black female F-16 pilot to fight in a major war.
Hopper is an Air Force legacy, born to Susan and Melvin Allick, both former pilots, and she held it down in over 50 Iraqi missions. The 30-something-year old pilot began flying in the U.S. Air Force in her early 20s. As a member of the 524th Fighter Squadron stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, Capt. Hopper was deployed to Kuwait in December 2002 to monitor no-fly zones.
Hopper believes that flying the F-16 is like flying a computer and is very difficult to manipulate.
She earned four air medals and one Aerial Achievement medal in the war in Iraq. One of the medals is for flying through rain and blowing sand after being struck by lightening and losing her jets’ anti-aircraft warning system. Despite her challenges, Hopper completed her mission of destroying a primary Iraqi Republican Guard supply line.
Hopper has kept the legacy going with her husband Aaron, also an Air Force pilot and an F-15 pilot in the 522nd Fighter Squadron.
