Pilar Mañas Brugat

María del Pilar Mañas Brugat (born 24 July 1975) is a Spanish military officer. In 2017 she became the first woman to take command of a Spanish Air Force unit. She was named an Exemplary Woman (Mujer Referente) by the Women's Institute (Spain) in 2018.

Biography
Pilar Mañas Brugat was born into an Aragonese family with a strong military tradition – her maternal great-grandfather was an officer of the Civil Guard, and two of her great-uncles participated in the Alhucemas landing. Mañas has said that a martial atmosphere was instilled in her home "since we were little, through the photos, the military books, and the uniforms that were in the house."

She trained in Murcia and has developed her professional career in Madrid, but has always maintained a strong link with her homeland, Aragon.

Her sister, Teresa de Jesús Mañas Brugat, is a career officer of the Spanish Army, a Captain of Regulares Group No. 52 of the Comandancia General de Melilla, and later Infantry Captain of the Army assigned to Regimiento Acorazado Pavía, part of Brigada Aragón I in Zaragoza. The Mañas Brugat sisters have blazed a path as women, each through her own career.

Career
Mañas is an air traffic and interception controller. She was trained at the General Air Academy in San Javier, Murcia in the mid-1990s. After intensive preparation for the exam, she joined the Academy in September 1995 and finished in July 1998 as an Air Traffic Control Officer, Operational Air Traffic (CAO) Specialty, including airfield, approach, and area, as well as Interception Control. Upon completion, her first assignment was as Head of Operations and Instruction in the Operational Air Traffic Squadron (ECAO Madrid) in the municipality of Torrejón de Ardoz, a post she held from 1998 to 2003.

From 2003 to 2013, she was assigned to the Servicio Aéreo de Rescate (SAR), also at Torrejón Air Base. She was the SAR Mission and Operations Coordinator, assuming responsibilities such as guiding aerial searches, rescuing damaged aircraft, and saving lives. At this point she was promoted to Captain. After a decade of service in the SAR, Mañas was assigned to Air Force Mixed Group 47 in November 2013, again at Torrejón.

After a 20-year career, she was promoted to Comandante (equivalent to Major) and was commissioned to direct ECAO Madrid, thus returning to her first posting. On 2 August 2017, she became the first woman to take command of a unit in the Spanish Air Force. She took command of the headquarters of ECAO Madrid at a ceremony held at Torrejón Air Base. The ceremony was chaired by General Rafael García Hernández, Chief of the Command and Control System, and attended by military and civil authorities, including the heads of the units located at the base and the director of the Central-North Region of ENAIRE. This historical event was picked up in the media and social networks, receiving congratulations from, among other people and institutions, the Minister of Defense, María Dolores de Cospedal.

As head of the unit, Mañas leads a team of 35 people who control one of the four zones into which Spanish airspace is divided, in a coordinated manner with civilian controllers, to ensure that state aircraft make their journeys without incident and arrive at their destinations in the shortest possible time. She is in charge of "exercising control of operational aerial traffic and coordinating the shared use of airspace in conditions of safety and fluidity between military and civil air traffic." This includes aircraft that transport members of the royal family and government, as well as those used in air evacuation, transfers to areas of operation and repatriation, and delivering humanitarian aid.

"I confess myself fortunate and proud to return to the place where I started my professional career. I feel that I have the obligation to give everything that I am personally and professionally able to carry out my mandate, and get the unit to maintain the prestige and professionalism that characterizes it."

The military magazine Ejércitos concluded that this was "news to be congratulated. [...] Step by step, equality is becoming the new norm for our Armed Forces."

In addition, Mañas is an expert in Protocol, Ceremony, and Organization of Events in the Royal Guard, has been a part of the Tactical Leadership Program – Electronic Warfare Course (EWC), and the NATO CASPOA Q1 Air Battle Training Course (France). She participates as a member of the Selection Tribunal for the Selective Processes of Officials for Admission to the Academies and is a member of the evaluation boards for the promotion of officers to higher rank.

Community engagement
Comandante Mañas participates in events aimed at developing vocation in girls and boys so that they can dedicate themselves to what they are passionate about when they grow up. Among other groups, she has collaborated with Inspiring Girls in Spain to motivate the women of the future in events together with women such as the Olympic athlete Carlota Castrejana, as well as with Raquel Sáez, Gloria Ortega, Victoria Alejandre, Verónica Fernández, and Eire García on the project "Break Stereotypes in Schools" that culminated with an audiovisual presentation describing the experience.

In 2018, she was named an Exemplary Woman (Mujer Referente) by the Spanish Government's Women's Institute (Spain) in the first edition of these awards, and Woman of the Year by the Madrid Third Millennium Forum (FMTM). She continues to give talks about the importance of the presence of women in the Army.

Recognitions

 * 2018: Named an Exemplary Woman by the Women's Institute (Spain)
 * 2018: Madrid Third Millennium Forum (FMTM) Woman of the Year