PINOY AVIATORS STORY: AMAZING GRACE... First Lady Pilot Hero of the Philippine Air Force and the first recipient woman recipient of the countrys highest military award, the MEDAL OF VALOR… 1LT MARY GRACE BALOYO was a former Aviation Cadet of the Philippine Air Force Flying School Class of 1997. An OV-10 Bronco combat pilot after her graduation from the PAF Flying School, she’s a veteran of the country’s Counter-Insurgency Campaigns in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, strafing rebels with machinegun fire, air to ground rockets and high explosive bombs during the Camp Abu Bakar campaign in Maguindanao Province. she was part of a Bronco flight that supported the military operation which decimated the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels and earned her the Distinguished Aviation Cross Medal for her bravery... Eight Gold cross, three Military Merit and two Distinguished Aviation Cross medals earned earlier in her colorful military career added to the sparkling ribbons already shining pinned in her chest - the most decorated female pilot in the Philippine Air Force during that time, earning her the nickname, “Amazing Grace”… “Amazing Grace” met her destiny on 26 March 2001 while flying an OV-10 Bronco, part of a three-plane formation… Bound for home, 1LT Baloyo and her senior co-pilot started experiencing a left engine trouble within their plane… the situation was made further complicated by and they concluded that they may not make it back to Danilo Atienza Air Base at Sanley Point Cavite…. They then decided to radio Clark International Airport, the nearest airfield within their reach and declared an emergency…. Clark tower personnel vectored the troubled Bronco to land at runway 20… But the disabled Bronco already beyond the pilots’ control started to plummet towards the ground… The Co-pilot ordered 1LT Baloyo to eject, then afterwards at 300 feet from the ground he ejected and his parachute opened but 1LT Baloyo did not follow, as the young officer ignored the order to eject… Amid heavy rains and near zero visibility, she knew that their plane was over a populated area… Over the residential subdivision of Fil Homes, Green Meadows and Leman, home of more than 200 families... Ejecting, Baloyo knew, would send the crashing Bronco right at the heart of the area killing civilians in what could have been a greater disaster… And so, she decided to stay in her cockpit, skillfully maneuvering the plane away from innocent civilians as the plane plummeted to the ground and exploded in flames in a vacant lot… the nearest house was just 10 meters from it. 1LT Baloyo, “the Amazing Grace” made a decision and it’s a sacrificial one... She refused to leave her plane and decided that she alone and no else will go down with it… Her plane crashed near Barangay Mabiga in the town of Mabalacat at 3:48 PM and the young officer going down with it. Scheduled to be married to her fiancee Air Force 1LT Nestor Dinopol on December 2002… 1LT Dinopol is her classmate in the Philippine Air Force Flying School and also a helicopter pilot from the 15th Strike Wing. At 26, 1Lt.Baloyo is the eldest of four children born to Romeo and Annie Baloyo, both meat store owners and vendors at the Bacolod City’s Libertad Market in the Sugarland of Negros Occidental Province, down in the Visayan peninsula. At a young tender age, aviation must have been her dream, hoping to become a flight attendant or a pilot... After graduating from St. Scholastica Academy in 1991 under the supervision of Catholic nuns, she attended college and earned a Bachelor’s Science degree in Airline Management from the Technical Institute of Cebu. Later she took and passed the rigorous entrance examination for the Corps of Aviation Cadets of the Philippine Air force Flying School in Fernando Air Base, Lipa City, the Air Force Academy of the country. As an Aviation Cadet she flew T-41Ds and SF260Ms during her two-year Cadetship/ Undegraduate Pilot Training (UPT) before earning her much coveted pilots’ wing and later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Philippine Air Force… Initially recommended to receive the Distinguished Service Star for her heroism but instead she was given the Medal of Valor... Her level of combat experience and the sense of duty at the highest calling she gave that day was considered deserving the highest honor, an honor that separated her from the rest... She was then conferred the Medal of Valor awarded posthumously and a promotion to the rank of Air Force Captain... Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Commander in Chief personally handed the medal to Baloyo’s parents, Romeo and Annie and with that, history was made... Grace became the first woman in the Philippines to received her country’s highest military award for heroism and joined the hall of the famed and the few... Reference: Angelfire By: PAFAcer Francis Karem Elazegui Neri PAFFS CL95
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 14:22:16 +0000
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