Jet flyover Sunday includes Penn Hills naval commander

As part of the salute to veterans at Sunday’s Steelers game at Heinz Field, there will be a flyover featuring the VFA-213 World Famous Fighting Blacklions. Serving on one of the Navy fighter jets will be a Penn Hills native, Navy Cmdr. Leslie Mintz.

With training and experience straight out of “Top Gun,” Cmdr.

Mintz and three other naval officers will take two jets into the skies over Pittsburgh after the national anthem.

“We thought we’d get some practice in today. We do make some noise,” she said Saturday after the jets roared over the city.

“We’ve got two Pittsburghers,” she said, explaining that her pilot Sunday will be Slippery Rock graduate Lt. Mitchell Monas, 31, of Waynesburg. The other jet’s officers are pilot Lt. Cmdr. Jason Geddes, of Akron, N.Y., and Cmdr. Patrick Baker of Silver Spring, Md.

As weapons systems officer, Cmdr. Mintz serves in the back seat of the two-person cockpit of the F-18 fighter jet.

Cmdr. Mintz, 42, is a 1996 graduate of Penn Hills High School and attended the University of Virginia, where she was a member of the Navy ROTC for four years. After receiving a degree in systems engineering in 2000, she joined the Navy and began flight school later that year. She earned her wings in March 2002.

Her service has taken her abroad, into combat and service in the nation’s capital. She served as aerial support in Afghanistan

during Operation Enduring Freedom. In May 2018, she joined the VFA-213 Blacklions as the executive officer of the squadron. The Blacklions are based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.

Cmdr. Mintz said she will take on the role of commanding officer of the squadron on Nov. 21. The squadron has no future deployment at this time, she said.

According to the Blacklions website, Cmdr. Mintz has more than 2,800 flight hours and is the recipient of the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Strike Flight Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, and various campaign and unit medals.

Cmdr. Mintz is married to F-18 pilot Cmdr. Larry Smith and has a daughter, Norah.

The Blacklions’ flyover is just part of the elite flying skills featured in the Tom Cruise movie. But if people need a reminder, Cmdr. Mintz said, “‘Top Gun 2’ is coming out soon. They just released the movie trailer.”