Navy helicopter pilot Jennifer Bennie featured in…
She was on cloud 9.
Navy helicopter pilot Lt. Jennifer Bennie, one of the fearless feminine veterans featured in the 2025 Pin-Ups For Vets calendar, was flying high on the glam that comes with being a calendar woman.
“I had never been so pampered. I felt so beautiful. I had my makeup professionally done, my hair. I was like, ‘I don’t even know I could look like that,’” Bennie, 47, told The Post forward of Veteran’s Day.
Bennie, a North Carolina native twice deployed to Iraq, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2000 and 2003, respectively, explained the importance of the car she posed in entrance of — a 1945 Chrysler Town and Country.
“That was the last time they put wood on a car because they needed the metal for the war effort, so I loved it historically-wise,” she said.
Navy helicopter pilot Lieutenant Jennifer Bennie posed for the 2025 Pin-Ups For Vets calendar. Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
“And I loved paying homage to the pin-ups and how this image really helped with morale during World War II.”
Until the mid-90s, girls weren’t even allowed to fly in fight, so Bennie, whose maiden identify occurs to be Mitchell — like Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” character — said altering the mindsets of her male counterparts was one of the best issues about her job.
“I would have so many guys say to me, ‘Miss Mitchell, I didn’t like women in the military, but I like you,’” she said, laughing.
“So I didn’t cut the trail. But I helped pave the road.”
The North Carolina native was deployed twice to Iraq. Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
“I flew up to the clouds and I could see my shadow on the clouds, and it was just me and the cockpit. I put my hand on the windscreen and I was like, ‘I never felt more accomplishment in my life,’” she recalled of her first solo flight.
Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
When she entered Naval Aviation School after commencement from Penn State on a full Navy scholarship, she was one of the first girls in her fleet squadron and given the call signal “Yoko,” “because I broke up the band of guys.”
Bennie, whose dad and mom had been both in the Air Force, graduated first in her class in flight college — surpassing all the boys.
“I beat everyone in the pool. You have to swim a mile in full flight gear. And I could always lift a guy on my shoulders,” she said.
Three days before she bought her wings in 2001, the Sept. 11 assaults shook the nation — and she was ordered to report to Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego.
Bennie flew every mission with an NYPD patch on her uniform. Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
Before she left, Bennie — whose Italian maternal grandfather immigrated to Jackson Heights, Queens and served in World War II, and whose mom was born and raised there as effectively — made sure to stop at Ground Zero with her cousin.
When they arrived, it was after midnight, and Bennie approached a police officer to ask where she might buy an NYPD patch.
“I said, ‘I’m a Navy pilot. I’m about to ship out to San Diego. I would really like to fly with a patch … and he ripped it off his coat,” she recalled.
“I never got his name, but I flew with it on every mission.”
“I brought all my men back alive,” said Bennie, when requested about the profession accomplishment that makes her the most proud. Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
As a helicopter pilot on small Navy ships, “where really, you’re the only air asset they have,” Bennie’s position was multifaceted.
“So you’ve got to be really good at landing the helicopter on a small postage stamp in the water,” she said.
“We would do eight-hour flights, usually at night, and you didn’t know what your job was gonna be. It could be surveillance, or it could turn into search and rescue, or it could turn it into medevac, someone could have a medical emergency, or it could turn into a man overboard.”
Bennie travels around the nation to go to the veterans who got here before her. Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
Bennie and her husband, Scott, at the Navy Ball in October, which celebrated the U.S. Navy’s 250th birthday. Courtesy of Jennifer Bennie
Bennie, who is now residing in Millington, Tennessee — the human assets hub of the Navy — with her husband, Scott, a Navy commander, earned a grasp’s degree in historical past under the GI Bill.
The mother of three now runs a YouTube channel called Walk With History, where she takes viewers on tour around historic websites.
Although she is going to lie low on Veteran’s Day, she honors the sacrifice her fellow servicemen have made throughout the 12 months by visiting veterans’ houses around the nation.
“I visit every veteran in the home and some don’t get visitors,” she said. “So when you walk in, they just light up.”
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