MILITARY NOTES

Navy Warrant Officer 1 Josia Pagler, the first female warrant officer to complete Officer Candidate School at Officer Training Command in Newport, Rhode Island, was selected Feb. 18 to be part of the Navy’s first aerial vehicle operators (AVO) with designator 737X, said a news release.

Pagler, a native of Rancho Cucamonga, enlisted in the Navy in 2019 and previously served as an aviation electrician’s mate 3rd class with Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 at Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.

“I was originally interested in being an aviation electrician’s mate for the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) during Aschool,” Pagler said in the news release. “Lt. Daniel Robinson, my division officer and assistant maintenance officer at HSM 70, really pushed me to apply for the AVO program when he knew I already had a college degree.”

She earned her bachelor’s degree in health care administration from Cal State Long Beach in 2016.

In December 2020, the Navy announced a new warrant officer specialty designator. The job of those officers will be to operate carrierbased MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial vehicles, which are expected to start appearing in fleet carrier air wings in 2024, according to the news release.

For warrant officers to operate the MQ-25 Stingray, the first carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle in the Navy, the secretary of the Navy approved the establishment of the AVO warrant officer designator in NAVADMIN 315/20.

“I honestly haven’t wrapped my mind around being the first of anything; however, I want to tell others to not hold yourselves back for going for something you want. Don’t be intimidated in a community where the majority are men,” Pagler said.

THE NAVY Navy Warrant Officer 1 Josia Pagler, the first female warrant officer to complete Officer Candidate School at Officer Training Command in Newport, R.I., was selected to be part of the Navy’s first aerial vehicle operators. Pagler is a Rancho Cucamonga native.