Sarah Deal

LtCol Sarah Deal Burrow, United States Marine Corps, became the first female Marine selected for Naval aviation training, and subsequently the Marine Corps' first female aviator in 1993.

Deal earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace flight technology from Kent State University in 1992. She was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in May 1992. Though she had already earned her pilot's license while in college, the Marine Corps did not yet have any female aviators. After Basic School at Quantico, she attended air traffic control school. When U.S. military policy was changed to allow women to fly combat aircraft in 1993, Deal requested to become an aviator. She was selected for training in July 1993. She began her flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola in the T-34C Turbo Mentor aircraft. She went on to helicopter training in the TH-57 Sea Ranger helicopter and earned her aviator's wings on April 21, 1995.

Deal was assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 466 as a CH-53E pilot.

Deal completed her active duty service in 2004 and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve. In May 2006, Deal was assigned to HMH-769 where she serves as a reserve CH-53E pilot. LtCol Deal is married to Philip M. Burrow, a former Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot who now flies for United Airlines. They are the parents of twin boys and a third son born in November 2006.