Black female pilot makes history in Alabama National Guard | Stars & Stripes Freeman's aviator wings were pinned by retired Col. Christine Knighton, the second black woman in the Department of Defense to earn aviator wings and the first from Georgia.

FORT RUCKER, Ala. — An Alabama soldier has made history as the first black female pilot in the state National Guard’s history.

News outlets report that 2nd Lt. Kayla Freeman of Huntsville graduated from Fort Rucker’s Army Aviation School last month, following her 2016 graduation from Tuskegee University where she was enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Retired Col. Christine Knighton pins aviator wings on 2nd Lt. Kayla Freeman at Freeman’s graduation from the Army Aviation school, June 21, 2018, at Fort Rucker, Ala. U.S. Army photo by 1st. Lt. Jermaine Thurston

Retired Col. Christine Knighton pins aviator wings on 2nd Lt. Kayla Freeman at Freeman’s graduation from the Army Aviation school, June 21, 2018, at Fort Rucker, Ala.. U.S. Army photo by 1st. Lt. Jermaine Thurston

Freeman’s aviator wings were pinned by retired Col. Christine Knighton, the second black woman in the Department of Defense to earn aviator wings and the first from Georgia. Freeman says Knighton has been an inspiration since college and “it was only right” to have her do the pinning.