'Mission success': Navy's first woman fighter pilot honored in Tennessee with historic all-female flyover

As four of the most sophisticated Navy aircraft rumbled through the valley in Maynardville on Saturday above the grave of Capt. Rosemary Mariner, her husband, Tommy, looked to the sky — and the heavens — with one thought in his mind: "Mission success." 

But it wasn't an easy mission for Rosemary. It was one that required unwillingly shining her shoes and following protocol in order to get into flight school. After becoming the Navy's first female fighter pilot, the mission involved challenging and breaking down barriers so other women could follow their dreams, too. 

Rosemary was laid to rest Saturday at age 65 surrounded by family, friends and just a handful of the military women she opened doors for — while yet more women flew high above them as the Navy held its first all-female flyover in her honor.  

"She knew women could fly airplanes," said Tommy, a retired navy commander. "But to have the job of a naval aviator and a professional naval officer went beyond that. And Rosemary understood that. That’s why she didn’t want to be looked at as exceptional. She wanted the door to open and other people to march through.”

Making history:Navy's first all-female flyover honors groundbreaking Capt. Rosemary Mariner

An 'unheard of' honorary act 

Retired Cmdr. Chris Giza remembers the first time she met Rosemary at officer candidate school. She was a petite, "mighty little dynamo" and just 19 — not old enough to join the Navy without her mother first signing a waiver. 

Rosemary didn't come to school to clean her room or shine her shoes. As Giza put it, the school was just a "necessary evil." 

"She seemed to collect demerits better than anybody collected anything," retired Capt. Mary Louise Griffon told those at Rosemary's funeral Saturday in Norris. "She was here to fly." 

So she did. 

Rosemary became the Navy's first female jet pilot, and Giza followed close behind. To be honest, Giza said, a lot of people didn't want that to happen. 

"It didn't bother her," Giza said. "She was very focused on what she wanted to do. It's like, 'If you are in my way, I'll just go around you.'" 

That determination led to Rosemary becoming the Navy's first female fighter pilot in the mid-1970s and the first woman to command a naval aviation squadron in the early '90s. Her life was full of firsts. 

But her goal was never just personal success, said retired Capt. Joellen Oslund, the Navy's first female helicopter pilot, who was also Rosemary's classmate and her maid of honor. 

Federal law restricted females from flying on ships and being involved in military combat. Rosemary was instrumental in getting those laws struck down. 

"I never saw Rosie get discouraged," Oslund said. "Even though she spent 24 years fighting for what she was fighting for, there was never any doubt in her mind she was going to prevail eventually ... I'm sure a lot of people thought it was crazy. We didn't." 

In Oslund's mind, having an all-female flyover would represent everything Rosemary fought for. The idea got passed around between Oslund, Giza and other women in the days following her Jan. 24 death. 

"The next thing you know, the Navy had approved it," Giza said. "This is unheard of. Four-star admirals get recognition like this. This is way beyond anything any of us ever dreamed could happen ... Never underestimate what a group of women all over the country (can do)." 

'A time to weep and a time to laugh'

A Bible verse from Ecclesiastes read at Rosemary's funeral says, "There is a time to weep and a time to laugh."

The service was a time for both. 

Tears streamed down faces inside the sanctuary at Norris United Methodist Church. Rosemary's casket was placed front and center, an American flag draped gently over top. 

The draped flag later turned into a crisply folded one, which was handed over to Rosemary's 24-year-old daughter Emmalee. Out of all the women Rosemary impacted, it was Emmalee who meant the most, her friends and family said. 

Emmalee sang a song in honor of her mother, while Tommy chose to tell stories — like the one about a time Rosemary made an emergency landing at a Las Vegas Air Force base on her way to a wedding, with Tommy landing behind her. 

A military major at the base, furious that their inspection was interrupted, couldn't hassle Rosemary after she took off her helmet and shook out her hair, Tommy said.

"I said, 'Sorry Major, but you'll have to talk to my flight lead," he said. "I'm just the wingman."

A few short days after Rosemary's death would have marked 39 years of Tommy being her wingman.

He still remembered their first date after meeting in the high desert of California at the China Lake naval weapons station. It was the summer of 1977.

She showed him her plane, on which captains had painted a rose. Tommy went on to call her "Rosebud" for years. The two went out to eat, and Tommy asked what was most important to her. 

"She came back with no hesitation at all — 'To be looked at as a person,'" he said.

Tommy took that to heart. Sure, she was a pilot, a barrier breaker and, later in her life, a lecturer at the University of Tennessee. But Rosemary was the person made for Tommy, and the two got married at China Lake in 1980.  

"They loved her in the high desert," Tommy said. "And so did I." 

Flying once again

Loved ones regathered after the funeral at New Loyston Cemetery in Maynardville. A 21-gun salute echoed in the valley before four "Super Hornets" soared above. 

The historic moment featured all-female pilots from the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach and one female ground crew member. 

Oslund said Rosemary, who died after a five-year battle with ovarian cancer, never sought out such honors. Still, Oslund thinks she would have been pleased by the act, known as the "Missing Man Flyover." 

The four aircraft flew in formation, as one left symbolically to climb upward toward the heavens to be with Rosemary. And it is in heaven where those who loved her most believe she is flying once again. 

Rosemary Mariner:Navy to honor first woman fighter pilot, UT lecturer with all-female flyover at Tennessee funeral