Lt. Col. Amy McGrath
Staff Report
Lt. Col. Amy McGrath Henderson, a Covington native and 1993 graduate of Notre Dame Academy, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the nonprofit Aviation Museum of Kentucky.
She became the first female Marine aviator to fly combat missions in the F/A-18 Hornet fighter over Afghanistan and Iraq.
She is one of four individuals with outstanding careers in aviation and aerospace to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. The ceremonies will take place on November 12 in Lexington.
The other honorees are Robert “Bob” Cole of Lexington, former station manager for Eastern Airlines and Comair at Blue Grass Airport and a founder of the Kentucky Aviation Roundtable; Col. Roy C. Gray Jr. of Frankfort, former Marine fighter pilot and POW during the Korean War and later a test pilot and commander of the Marine detachment at the Naval Air Test Center; and Thomas Logsdon, a native of Springfield whose mathematical capabilities were applied to satellite trajectory simulations by NASA and the computations for satellite orbits that permit the Global Positioning System (GPS) to work anywhere on earth.
On the job
SpaceTango of Lexington, a division of Kentucky Space LLC that is pioneering the science of exomedicine on the International Space Station, is the recipient of the 2016 Aviation Achievement Award.
A distinguished career
Upon graduation from Notre Dame Academy, McGrath received the superintendent’s appointment to Annapolis. After completing a bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997, she earned an M.A. in Global Security Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a Graduate Certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University. She is a graduate of the Marine Amphibious Warfare School, Marine Fighter Weapons Division Tactics Course, and Marine Corps Command and Staff College. She currently is on the faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy.
As a midshipman, she was a member of the Naval Academy’s first varsity women’s soccer team in 1993 and was a three-year letter-winner. She was the Midshipman Director of NAFAC in her senior year.
She was featured in Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq, published in 2007.
After her commissioning as a Marine Corps officer and completion of flight school in 1999, she was assigned as a F/A-18 Weapons Systems Officer to Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121.
In 2002, Captain McGrath, deployed to Kyrgyzstan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom flying combat missions in Afghanistan. In 2003, she completed her second combat tour to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Deployment and distinction
From 2005-06, Capt. McGrath transitioned to become an F/A-18 pilot. In her second tour with 121, she completed a deployment to East Asia from 2007-09. In 2010, she deployed to Afghanistan with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. While operational, she accrued over 2000 flight hours and flew 85+ combat missions. She has flown in multiple exercises in the continental U.S., Alaska, Egypt, Australia, Korea and Japan.
In 2011, Major McGrath was assigned to Capitol Hill as a Congressional Fellow. She worked in the office of Representative Susan Davis of San Diego as the congresswoman’s defense and foreign affairs policy advisor. From 2012-13, she served in the Pentagon at Headquarters Marine Corps, Strategy & Plans Division, International Affairs Branch as the Marine Corps’ liaison to other federal government agencies such as the Department of State and US Agency for International Development.
Her awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, (8) Strike Flight Air Medals, Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, and Iraqi and Afghan (2) Campaign medals.
Her tent when she was based in Manas, Kyrgyzstan (former USSR). Coalition forces based there were from eight different countries.
More information about the November 12 induction ceremony and banquet is available at www.aviationky.org or 859-231-1219.
Free Admission to Aviation Museum
Friday, August 19, is National Aviation Day, which will be celebrated at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky by offering free admission Friday through Sunday. The museum is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday.
August 19 is also the birthday of Orville Wright, who with his sibling Wilbur mastered the technology that became powered flight. Orville Wright celebrated his 68th birthday on the first National Aviation Day, and lived another nine years until 1948.
“There is no better place in the Commonwealth to celebrate aviation,” said museum President/COO David Riggins. “Guests can see a model of what the Wright brothers flew, a replica of the first successful powered aircraft flown in Kentucky, and so much more. We welcome everyone to take advantage of free admission during our three day observance.”
The Aviation Museum of Kentucky is a non-profit institution and the official aviation museum of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is located at 4029 Airport Road, adjacent to Blue Grass Airport in Lexington.
More about the museum is at www.aviationky.org or 859 231 1219.
With the Northern Alliance, in Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. The Afghanis are holding up squadron stickers McGrath gave them. She showed them this picture on her digital camera after it was taken. They had never seen anything like it before, she wrote.
