Aggressive. Competitive. Not accepting of failure. These are just a few of the characteristics of a fighter pilot. But for one fighter pilot, it’s sheer determination that got her to the top.

Iowa State can add a new leader to its list of remarkable alumni— a leader of sonic proportions nonetheless.

“The first time I went in for simulator training, my instructor said ‘Do you really think you’re going to make it through this program?'” Bobbi Doorenbos said. “And I thought, ‘you better believe it.'”

2nd Lt. Bobbi Doorenbos, a 1991 ISU graduate in finance, is on track to becoming the first woman in Air National Guard history to be selected and trained as an F-16 pilot. And she made sure all of Lubbock, Texas knew about it.

Within an hour of receiving her wings, Doorenbos, a Breda native and a member of the Iowa National Guard’s 185th Fighter Wing in Sioux City, and her commanding officer celebrated with a ceremonial flight — a flight many are not likely to forget.

“We didn’t mean to do it,” Doorenbos said from her new home at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Miss., “but we ended up breaking the sound barrier too close to Lubbock. It shook the windows and everyone thought a bomb had gone off.

“We got in so much trouble, but it was a lot of fun. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Neither will her fellow officers. The supersonic stunt earned her the nickname “Boom-boom.”

Sound barriers aren’t the only ones Doorenbos is breaking. In her quest to become a fighter pilot, she has had to deal with numerous obstacles, the largest one being the United States Congress.

“I’ve always wanted to be a pilot,” Doorenbos, 26, said. “I wanted to go fast. I wanted to fly the fighters. But it was unrealistic. To fly a fighter, you have to to be able to go into combat and women weren’t allowed to go into combat.”

That is, women couldn’t go into combat until 1993, when Congress dropped the ban. Luckily, Doorenbos was prepared. While a student here at ISU, she began taking flying lessons at the Ames Municipal Airport.

Doorenbos applied to become a fighter pilot in the Air National Guard immediately after the ban was dropped. In May, she graduated second in her class from her undergraduate pilot training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock. She also received the top flying grades among the fighter students, further proving it’s not just a man’s world in the sky.

Despite recent events involving women in the military, including harassment, Doorenbos said she has had nothing but support from her peers. She credits changes in society and “sensitivity training” in the military for what she described as a “real supportive atmosphere.”

So where does a former high school homecoming queen get the idea, let alone the determination, to become a fighter pilot? For Doorenbos, it came from her father. When most girls were dreaming of becoming a ballerina, Doorenbos was looking to the sky for answers— and to catch a glimpse of her father.

Rodney Doorenbos also flew for the 185th Fighter Wing. Rodney Doorenbos always told his little girl she could be anything she wanted to be— if she was willing to put forth the effort.

“It was a goal she never varied from and I never told her she couldn’t do it,” he said. “It’s important to understand a person can do anything you want if you commit yourself. I hate to hear ‘I can’t.'”

Those two words seem almost absent from his daughter’s vocabulary. There are five other little words that Bobbi Doorenbos has trouble hearing, no matter how often they’re repeated to her.

“Break things and kill people. We’re told over and over that that’s our job — to break things and kill people,” she said. “No matter how exciting it is to fly, the bottom line is we’re training for war. That’s the attitude and sometimes it’s hard to swallow.”

Her father agrees. “Of course I worry,” Rodney Doorenbos said. “It’s a very dangerous activity. But I know that in the Air Force, risk management is paramount. And if you do the things you’re trained to do, it’s not that dangerous.”

In fact, the younger Doorenbos said, it can be almost spiritual. “When you’re up there and you’re going 300 or 400 miles per hour,” she said, “it becomes peaceful. You’re at peace.”

Doorenbos is currently in Columbus, Miss. for a six-week introduction into basic fighter maneuvers and dog fighting. Once that’s completed, she’s off to Arizona for F-16 school.

Following training, Doorenbos must fulfill a year of active duty in the Air National Guard. After a year, she will become a regular Guardsman, devoting one weekend a month to the service.

As for her civilian life, Doorenbos has the option of returning to her job as a pension administrator at the Principal Financial Group or she may decide to finish her master’s in business administration at Drake University. But for this former Cyclone, it seems only the sky is the limit.