When he turns 25, this Sunday (13), Emily de Souza Braz, a young girl with huge eyes born on the Uruguay border, will have an extra reason to celebrate. She has just become the first Brazilian Army helicopter pilot woman. The first and, for now, the only one in 39 years of the army in the current configuration.
Lieutenant Emily did not think of becoming a pilot by joining the Aman (Military Academy of the Negras), for which she graduated in 2021, in the first class of fighter officers to include women.
Daughter of a sergeant, raised in Sant’Ana do Livramento (RS), she was enchanted by aviation technology and had a keen interest in a supply mission in 2020, when a pilot, playing, left with her a badge and asked him to deliver back when he was in Taubaté (SP), where the army’s aviation instruction center is located.
“Before I got into Aman I didn’t even know there was aviation in the army,” he says.
Nor was the lone pioneering the plans. Lieutenant Andrielly Mostavenco, her friend from the same class and a manager of war material, would be with her, but died in a road accident last year. In the names of the two the Army intends to join soon more.
“We have already changed the female segment from 8% to 12% of our staff,” said, who participated in the graduation ceremony this Friday (11) in Taubaté (SP). With Emily another 13 combat pilots were formed.
“Soon we will have a crew only from the female segment,” he said, noting that there are already mechanics in aviation and that next year, together with the pilot’s brief. “I’ve seen others [militares mulheres] Having around her, surely she won’t be the only one. “
Emily says the training is the same for men and women, and that the class welcomed her very well. “We were very united.” The training, which lasts 63 weeks, foresees 1,400 hours of flight on army devices, plus more than 400 in simulators. The aircraft that Lieutenant will pilot cost an average of 50 million euros, according to the force.
But what she really wants is to go to the jungle to drive. “I intend to fulfill different missions, to gain experience, specialize more and more, I want to go to the jungle, serve there as a pilot,” he says. The husband, also a pilot of the army, goes along (it is wrong to think they met at Aman-they were presented by her mother-in-law and her godmother, who were friends).
Asked if she aspires to the General, she hesitates. “I want this to be a consequence of my work, not a priority.”
Emily’s entry into combat forces is at a time when the Brazilian Army seeks to expand female participation.
The view that women can participate in combat, however, is not consummated. For volunteers enlisted for 2026 – there are 1,000 vacancies – it is expected to follow mainly in health and military colleges.
Seen as a model of armed forces ,. The Republican dismissed much of the women’s officers in command positions, and his defense secretary Pete Hegseth has already claimed to be against women in combat positions.
Emily, in turn, sees no obstacle in this regard. “I recommend [às colegas que estão vindo] That do not give up, to dedicate themselves. We are competent and we have capacity. “
