The First Female AH-6 Pilot for the 160th SOAR

Early Military Path & West Point

• 💡 Lindsey's early life included a strong desire for military service, inspired by a visit to West Point at age 11, despite no family military background.
• 🎯 She was a disciplined and athletic child, excelling in track and field, which contributed to her physical readiness for military life.
• 🔑 Her journey at West Point evolved from a struggling plebe with low confidence to becoming the First Captain, the highest-ranking cadet.
• 🧠 As First Captain, she faced the unique challenge of peer leadership, learning to inspire and gain buy-in without a traditional military rank structure.

Aviation Career & 160th SOAR

• 🚀 After West Point, Lindsey pursued aviation, specifically aiming to fly Apache helicopters (AH-64), which she achieved by being top of her flight school class.
• ✈️ She later sought to join the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), inspired by their professionalism, and aimed to fly the AH-6 Little Bird.
• ✅ Her assessment for the 160th SOAR was physically and mentally demanding, requiring a "don't quit" mindset, including a challenging caving ladder climb and lifting a heavy ammo can.
• 🏆 Lindsey became the first female AH-6 Little Bird pilot for the 160th SOAR, facing no differential treatment and being accepted as "one of the guys."

Combat Experience & Transition

• 🚁 She completed two deployments to Afghanistan as an AH-6 pilot, gaining trust and experience as an Air Mission Commander during operations like an airfield seizure.
• ⚠️ The AH-6 Little Bird is a physically demanding aircraft to fly due to lack of hydraulics and its high-power flight profile, requiring constant attention and physical input.
• 💡 After her second deployment, she decided to transition out of the military, seeking new intellectual challenges and a different life path.

Entrepreneurship & Future Vision

• 🎓 Lindsey pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School, gaining admission to all seven business schools she applied to, fulfilling a long-held ambition.
• 🏡 She co-founded Oply, an AI-powered tech platform designed to predict home maintenance needs and autobook services for homeowners, streamlining property management.
• 🤖 Oply utilizes AI and a vector database to learn home systems without hardware, aiming to replace traditional marketplaces and property management companies.
• 📈 Lindsey sees a future for drones in military aviation for warfighting, but expresses skepticism about fully autonomous aircraft without human pilots.