Gabrielle Arkle ’12: Determined to Fly & Complete the Mission

“They had tours of the planes, and when I was probably seven or eight, World War II vets led the tours,” Arkle recalled. “I remember at the end of the tour, I walked up to a World War II vet, and he looked down at me, and he gave me a pair of flight wings, and he said, ‘One day, you can be a pilot, too.’ That’s always stuck with me—the thought, ‘I can be a pilot, too, one day.’ ”

That one day is now. After completing U.S. Army aviation school in 2024, Lieutenant Arkle was assigned as a Chinook helicopter pilot for the Army, stationed with the Mississippi National Guard in Meridian, Mississippi. If you’ve never seen a Chinook, it is a massive helicopter and distinctive because instead of just one rotor it features dual rotors, one in the front and one in the back. The dual rotor design makes the aircraft extremely stable and versatile, but most importantly, results in significant lift capabilities. The Chinook can lift up to 50,000 pounds and has a cargo area that can accommodate up to 32 people. It’s a workhorse that is used for troop and cargo transport, special operations, and in humanitarian aid missions.

Arkle had additional inspiration for joining the military and wanting to become a pilot: her father and her grandfather, both of whom had a passion for aviation. Her father works at FedEx headquarters, and Arkle said she fondly remembers going to the company’s annual parties for employees that would take place at the airport hangars where she’d get to see the FedEx planes up close. Her grandfather served in the Army and encouraged her to join the military, hoping she’d become a pilot.

To date, Arkle has been in the Army for nine years. After enlisting, she went through advanced individual training, where she completed four months of air traffic control school. In 2020, she was deployed to Kuwait with the Pennsylvania National Guard for nine months. She was a sergeant in charge of a team of other air traffic controllers, an experience that she said helped her develop leadership skills.

Besides remembering the intense heat of Kuwait, she said being there was mentally challenging because they would often work eight- or 12-hour shifts, and sometimes only have one day off each week. The base was busy, with air traffic from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps—which, in retrospect, she explained, provided a great learning experience.

She admitted being away from home was difficult, too. “It definitely took a toll on me, not being able to hug my friends and family or talk to them face to face for a year,” she said. “I did have the support system of the other soldiers who were there with me. I made lifelong friends on deployment. There are four of us who have stayed close. We talk weekly and go on a girls’ trip every year.”

While at Louisiana State University, Arkle obtained her Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) commission as a U.S. Army Reserve Officer. When she decided to become an officer and work toward being a pilot, Arkle knew that the bulk of Army aviation involved helicopters. Beyond her air traffic control experience, flying wasn’t totally new. She previously had some civilian flight hours learning to fly small planes. “I could have switched branches at that point, because my enlistment was finishing. I could have gone with the Air Force. But I’ve had a good experience with the Army, so I decided I would stay and fly helicopters.”

She had a hurdle, though. Her vision didn’t meet the standards to be a pilot, so Arkle had LASIK eye surgery. “That sounds like a small thing,” she said, “but there are so many things that can hold you back from doing what you want to do. You can easily turn away and say, ‘Well, I don’t have this quality, or I can’t do it because of this.’ It’s easy to get discouraged, but there’s usually a workaround.

Reaching New Heights

Even with determination, the path wasn’t always easy.

“Flight school was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was harder than college,” Arkle said. “It was a fire hose of information. I was just trying to get as much in as I could, in the amount of time I had.”

She said flight school takes a year and a half to complete, and students fly every single day. In addition to the actual flying, there is a lot to learn about regulations, emergency procedures, navigation, the mechanics of a helicopter and how it operates, maintenance, airspace regulations, weather patterns, and much more.

“You have a long day and then you have to go home and study. I think the most difficult part that people don’t realize is that training to become a pilot is almost 85 percent studying and taking tests.”

Arkle said flying a helicopter is a bit more challenging than an airplane, not the least of which is learning to hover, which she described as a very difficult task. There’s mental stress, too, because you’re responsible for a multi-million-dollar aircraft. The upside, she explained, is that helicopters are extremely versatile because you can land in places that an airplane could never land and because you can change course much easier and faster.

For the Chinook helicopter, there are always two pilots: a pilot in command, who is physically flying the helicopter, and a mission manager, who is managing the flight computer, navigation, and other complex aircraft systems. The Chinook, for instance, has five screens to monitor. As a new pilot, Arkle serves as a mission manager, but her goal is to one day become certified as a pilot in command.

Arkle said the two things she’s constantly considering are how to accomplish the assigned mission and how to take care of her crew. She knows the mission is the priority, but having been enlisted, she can understand the needs of her crew as well.

“We do external loads, picking up cargo outside the helicopter. There are crew members who are in the back of the helicopter with a hook, and you don’t want to let them down. There’s a lot of pressure,” she said. “As the pilot, you’re responsible for the safety of the whole crew and the performance of the helicopter, and you want to make sure you’re doing your job so that they can do their jobs and together you can accomplish the mission.

“For me, besides the physical aspect of learning how to fly a helicopter and having some tasks that are difficult, the toughest challenge is making sure you have the mental fortitude and a calm mindset to be able to assess situations properly and then listen to your crew.”

She said that a big part of the equation is trust. “The enlisted get the job done, and the officers are the ones who give out orders. You don’t want to break that trust. Officers are supposed to take care of their soldiers, because then the soldiers trust you and can complete the mission.”

“… An Environment Where I Felt Like I Could Do Anything …”

There were two important things Arkle learned at Hutchison that she said will serve her for the rest of her life. One is critical thinking. “Hutchison teaches all the girls to be independent and think for themselves,” she said. “Critical thinking is important for officers in the military, as we’re making decisions for a lot of people whose lives are in our hands. We have to be able to think on the fly.”

She also gained a sense of ambition. “Hutchison always encouraged us to make the most of our education and make the most of our lives. In my Army career, I enlisted and then I made sergeant in three years, which is fast for the Army, but that’s because I was ambitious and wanted it and so I pushed for it. After that, I pushed to become an officer.

“Hutchison teachers and administrators fostered an environment where I felt like I could do anything. I never felt like I was going to be limited by anything in life other than what my goals were and how hard I worked.”

One person she credits is Katy Nair, who is now Hutchison’s upper school head. “She was someone who was always in our corner,” Arkle recalled. “She was such a motivator. She would tell us that she was proud of us. That means a lot when you hear it from your parents, but your parents are supposed to say that! Hearing those words from a teacher really made a difference. She encouraged us to have lofty goals and shoot for whatever we wanted.”

Arkle returned to Hutchison to give a Veterans Day speech to the upper school. She shared her experiences and reflections on service, leadership, and believing in yourself. Her grandfather was in the audience and after the assembly, he talked about how proud he was of her.

Even though Arkle is also proud of where she is now, she has more goals for the future. Her number one priority right now is to become a pilot in command. She expects that it may take two years. After that, she would like to work toward becoming an instructor pilot, teaching advanced tasks to new pilots who move from flight school to a unit. That might require another two to three years.

“I think an instructor pilot can have the most direct influence on how the unit develops and how new pilots develop,” she explained. “I would like to make sure that pilots behind me have a good mentor and reflect the culture of the unit that I would want.”

Along the way, she aspires to make captain, then major, and maybe even colonel.

A saying she often remembers is: “No one cares about your career like you do, so don’t leave it up to other people to advance your career.”