Stefanie Richtofen

"They told me women cannot fly fighters or other combat aircraft in the Luftwaffe, that's a disgrace to every female fighter pilot from the 1940's to the 1990's that flew for the Luftwaffe, I've always wanted to fly since I was 17, I wanted be something different, instead I got my commission from the D.R. Air Force Academy and flew for the DRAF from the time I was 22 till I was 27, I returned to Yohanes and re transferred back to the Luftwaffe and things had changed, I was flying F/A-22 Greifvogel as part of Jagdgeschwader 02 (JG 02) and besting the best pilots in Aerial Combat Training that the Luftwaffe had to offer, I even bested the best of the DRAF during cross training. They said I was the best, but did I believe? No, I was just another pilot willing to do my job when the time came."

- Hauptmann Stefanie "Witwenmacher" Richtofen Stefanie Richtofen (Born XX/XX/XXX) is a Luftwaffe Hauptmann (Captain) and best known for shooting down (simulated kill) D.R. Air Force Pilot, Major Josie Williams during International War Games hosted in Yohanes. Both pilots were flying F/A-22C Raptors.

Early Life
Stefanie was born to parents Hanz and Janina Richtofen in Wüstenfuchs, a small city near the border of Tarakia, she is the oldest sibling in her family, having a younger brother and a younger sister. From a young age, she was interested in flight as her father was an Oberst in the Luftwaffe, and her great great Grandfather was an Ace Pilot in the Luftwaffe during the 1940's. At the age of 8, her father took her up in the two seat turboprop trainer aircraft Pilatus PC-21 and this made her really excited for learning to fly one day and join the Luftwaffe when she was of age (17 years old with parent permission). At the age of 12, her father began to teach her how to fly small two seater civilian aircraft, over the course of the next few years she got better and better and thanked the success of which when she got her pilots license to her dad, who he himself was a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot in his younger days. At the age of 17, she joined the Luftwaffe after graduating from school early, and went off to Basic Training.

Military Career
Completing Basic Training by summer, Stefanie went off to her Advanced Training Specialty for Helicopter Mechanic, originally wanting to fly she was barred because the Luftwaffe was going through a transition period. After completing training and being certified to work on both the MH-90 Whirlwind and the UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopters. After working on various helicopters and becoming certified on other models, at the age of 19; Richtofen underwent 28 weeks of training to become a MH-90 Whirlwind Pilot for the Luftwaffe, after completing training, she was certified to fly the Whirlwind and spent many hours in the air, and went on many deployments, she primarily flew the Aeromedical version of the Whirlwind, the HH-90H Nachtigall, due to PAMA not having a restriction on whether aeromedic helicopters can be armed or not, the Luftwaffe made sure their Aeromedical Helicopters were armed with two Light 5.56mm or 7.62mm machine guns for defense when coming in under fire. One such event took place, when she was ordered to evacuate wounded Tarakian Soldiers in small regional conflict, her helicopter came under heavy fire and she was forced off station, her helicopter sustained damage from the HMG rounds that had impacted the engine and rotor hub, forcing her to land further away from the wounded soldiers, the four Tarakian PJ's on board the HH-90 volunteered to go and retrieve their wounded brothers. After returning home from the conflict, her HH-90H was repaired and Ensign Richtofen was grounded from flying pending an investigation. At 20 years old, she requested transfer to the Democratic Republic Air Force Academy to get her Officer Commission, as a foreign student, she spent two years (the same time to get an officers commission in her country) at the Air Force Academy and got her Commission as a 2nd Lieutenant (Leutnant equivalent in the Luftwaffe), she then went on to make Pilot Selection and began the one year training process, she trained on the legacy F-15C Eagle, F-15G Eagle, F-16F Desert Viper, F/A-35A Cottonmouth and then finally on the F/A-22C Raptor. After completing her year long flight training, she was assigned to the 223rd Fighter Squadron based out of Recker Air Force Base in Southern, Tarakia. During a routine patrol over Tarakia, she and her wingman were diverted on an intercept course to chase off an unidentified aircraft that was off the coast of Tarakia, after identifying the aircraft as from the Caye Air Force, Richtofen and her wingman ordered both vocally and by hand motion for the Su-37 Flanker-E to exit the air space or be shot down, after not complying with orders, Richtofen got in contact with Air Defense Command, who ordered her to shoot down the aircraft if it showed hostile intentions, Richtofens wingman moved into position and armed their AIM-188 JDRADM to get the Flanker to get out of the air space, after following the aircraft for a good 35 miles, the Su-37 finally waived off and flew off into the distance away from Tarakia. After returning to their routine patrol, Richtofen thought to herself what would've happened had they shot down the Su-37 and put the thoughts down in her official report."I often wondered what would've happened had we shot down that Caye Su-37 Flanker that day, they were treading in on our air space, and by the looks of it, the pilot was a rookie and was scared for his life, I looked him dead in the eyes and could see the fear in him, I gave him a hand signal letting him know that I wasn't going to hurt him, we just wanted to know his intentions, my wingman was the one who finally scared him off. I do wonder about that young pilot, and whatever happened to him, his name was on the side of the cockpit, in English and Cyrillic, his name was Artem Tretyakov.. I will never forget the fear in his eyes."

- 2nd Lieutenant Stefanie Richtofen in official report following the interception