Major Micky Colton (Ret.) is a retired female

Canadian military } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

pilot,

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facilitator and author. She joined the military in August 1980, just a few weeks after the Canadian military first started accepting

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

civilian recruits in their pilot program. Having received her pilot's wings in 1982, she spent most of her time in the military as a Search And Rescue (SAR) Pilot, operating the

CC130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

Hercules aircraft. In 2000, she became the first female pilot to log 5000 hours on the Hercules, and in 2009 was honoured by being added to the 100 names to commemorate 100 years of flight in Canada gracing the side of a CF18 demonstration hornet. She retired from the military in 2011, was a

reservist A reservist is a person who is a member of a military reserve force. They are otherwise civilians, and in peacetime have careers outside the military. Reservists usually go for training on an annual basis to refresh their skills. This person is ...

until 2018 coordinating SAR launches for 424 Squadron, and is now no longer serving.

Early years

Major Colton was born in

Kitchener, Ontario ) , image_flag = Flag of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , image_seal = Seal of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_shield=Coat of arms of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_blank_emblem = Logo of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , blank_emblem_type = ...

in May 1958. As a child and teenager, she had no interest in the military and had aspirations of becoming a veterinarian. However, she developed a love of flying after cashing in coupons for free flying lessons clipped from a magazine. "My boyfriend at the time said, ‘You can’t fly, you’re a girl,’ and I thought, ‘Oh yeah? ’" (Major Colton on the topic of her free lessons). At the time, she had been working as a courier, but got the idea to join the military from a friend. She saw no reason why she would not be allowed to enter the military, and was surprised when the recruitment officer told her excitedly that she was his first ever female pilot recruit.

Working years

Major Colton moved through the officer ranks of the Canadian military, and was promoted to major in 1997. Over the years she has been posted to several Canadian military bases including St. Albert, Alberta where her daughter was born; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Greenwood, Nova Scotia and others. Her final posting was to 8 Wing Trenton in Trenton, Ontario, in 1992 where she remained until retirement. She has spent the majority of her years in the military flying the Hercules in SAR missions, searching middle- and Eastern-Ontario for missing persons, boats, or aircraft. In 2003, she spent 6 months in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

who she was flying to Nunavut when she reached 6000.
2009: Is named as one of the 100 Canadians who have made significant contributions to Canada's aviation history to be painted on the side of the 100 Years Of Flight commemorative CF-18 Hornet.
2011: Retires from the airforce after 32 years of service, 6,936 hours on the

and over 7,100 flying hours total.
2018: Retires from the reserves.
2018: Wins the Northern Lights Aero Foundation (NLAF) Elsie Pioneer Award
2021: Publishes her first book, Riley and the Road Cones.

Personal life

Major Colton is a wife and mother, married to Lt. Colonel (ret.) Chris Colton. She met Chris in 1982 as he was her first flying instructor when she first started pilot training. They married in 1989, and had their first and only child, a daughter, in 1990.
Colton is the owner of Horse Sense Equine Guidance, a

(Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning) facility in

Prince Edward County, Ontario Prince Edward County (PEC) is a municipality in southern Ontario, Canada. Its coastline on Lake Ontario’s northeastern shore is known for Sandbanks Provincial Park, sand beaches, and limestone cliffs. The Regent Theatre, a restored Edwardian o ...

.
Colton is an active

dressage Dressage ( or ; a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined b ...

rider, and rides and trains her bay International Sport Horse, Han Solo, in Silver (provincial) level dressage.
In 2021, Colton became a children's author, launching her first in a series of books about the horses at her farm

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colton, Micky 1958 births Living people People from Kitchener, Ontario Royal Canadian Air Force officers Canadian female military personnel