From Apache attack helicopters to the Grit Factor with Shannon Polson

Great, informative interview with Shannon Polson, one of the first female attack helicopter pilots in the US Air Force. We discuss her journey, and her new book in which she shares insights from other women who have also broken records and achieved new successes. At age nineteen, Shannon Huffman Polson became the youngest woman ever to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America. She went on to reach the summits of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilimanjaro and spent more than a decade traveling the world. Yet it was her experience serving as one of the Army's first female attack helicopter pilots, leading two Apache flight platoons-- taking one on deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina-- and a line company in Korea, that she learned the lessons of leadership she would take with her for the rest of her life. Where did these insights come from? From her own crucibles of experience – and from other women. Writing The Grit Factor, Polson made it her mission to connect with an elite pack of tough, impressive female iconoclasts who shared their candid stories of combat and career. This decorated slate of leaders includes Heather Penney, one of the first female F-16 pilots who was put on a "suicide mission" for 9/11; General Ann Dunwoody, first female four-star general in the Army; Amy McGrath, first woman Marine to fly the F/A-18 in combat and a 2020 candidate for the US Senate – and dozens of other unstoppable women who got there first, including Polson herself. These women led at the highest levels in the most complicated, challenging, and male-dominated organization in the world. Polson brings these voices together, sharing her own life lessons and theirs with storytelling flair, keen insight, and incisive analysis of current, relevant research. See more on her website http://www.shannonpolson.com/ and on her twitter account https://twitter.com/aborderlife