Peabody U.S. Navy Pilot Earns 'Wings Of Gold' Award

PEABODY, MA — A 2017 Peabody Veterans Memorial High School graduate who attended the U.S. Naval Academy was recently presented with her "Wings of Gold" designation at a Naval Air Station ceremony in Florida.

U.S. Navy Lt. J.G. Emily Bellavance was selected for Navy pilot training at the Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation in Pensacola Florida and learned to fly the Beech T-6B Texan II, the Navy's primary fixed-wing trainer, before taking part in eight months of advanced helicopter training on the new TH-73A Thrasher helicopter with Squadron HT-8 in Milton, Florida.

She completed the course of basic maneuvers, tactics, instruments, low-level navigation, formation flight, night familiarization and shipboard landing to earn the designation as a Naval aviator and the Wings of Gold award.

Bellavance next will attend the Survival Evasion Resistance Escape School to learn wilderness survival, hostile force evasion, interrogation resistance and escape from captivity, before she becomes a member of the HSM-40 Airwolves fleet replacement squadron.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)