Nicole Malachowski had spent her life trying to blend in with the guys.

Nicole Malachowski had spent her life trying, as she says, “to blend in with the guys.” That’s not surprising: As a 1996 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, one of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force and the first woman among the Air Force’s legendary Thunderbirds demonstration squad, Malachowski was forging a new path.