OAK HARBOR — Serena Wileman first wanted to become a pilot when she saw the Blue Angels as a child. She hoped to become the first woman to command the squadron.
When fellow aviator Jill Meyers met her, Wileman was 24, working three jobs, trying to decide whether she wanted to join the Navy or Marine Corps.
“She was an immediate presence,” Meyers recalled. “People just knew right away that she was special.”
Several hundred people lined a highway in Oak Harbor on Monday evening to honor Lt. Wileman, one of two 31-year-old naval aviators killed Oct. 15 when her EA-18G Growler jet crashed on a routine training flight near Mount Rainier. The crash also claimed the life of Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay Evans. The cause remains under investigation.
Naval officers, cadets, law enforcement officials and neighbors saluted Wileman as her remains returned from Dover Air Base in Delaware — where military postmortem exams are conducted — to her base in Washington. Many dressed in uniform or hoisted American flags in the air to honor Wileman, as a motorcade escorted a hearse to an Oak Harbor funeral home.
A Sacramento, Calif., native, Wileman was commissioned in 2018. She first reported to Electronic Attack Squadron 130, based on Whidbey Island, in November 2022. Wileman was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation Medal and Combat Action Ribbon. Her call sign was “Dug.”
Evans’ remains will arrive in Anacortes later in the week, and her arrival will be private per her family’s wishes, according to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Chantelle Dawson arrived early Monday with her daughter, standing along the street in the stead of her husband, a Navy chief who was on duty at the time of the procession. Although her family didn’t know the women personally, Dawson said their deaths left a mark on Whidbey Island.
“We’re a pretty tight-knit community,” Dawson said.
Meyers, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force member, was Wileman’s mentor for years. When Meyers had to step down from leading the San Diego Chapter of Women in Aviation International, she handpicked Wileman as her successor. When she asked, Wileman “stopped in her tracks.” She then looked at Meyers and said: “I don’t have enough experience to do this.”
Meyers responded: “You may not have the years, but you stand out. You show up. You are so passionate. I can just tell that you’ll be great at it.”
And she was, Meyers said.
“She will always be an amazing role model to women in very high risk, male-dominated fields,” Meyers said, “as to how to navigate through that, how to succeed.”
The Navy will announce memorials for the women later this week.
