08/30/2026
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Danielle Parton graduated from Belmont University in 1998 with a degree in business administration. After college, she began her airline career not in the cockpit, but in the cabin, working as a flight attendant for American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
It did not take long for her to start looking toward the other end of the airplane. Danielle later told AOPA that she had never known a pilot, “certainly not a female pilot.” Civilian flight training was more than she could afford, and when she asked how to get into the cockpit, she was told to go military. Go Guard.
And she kept the plan from her famous aunt. “I didn’t tell her what I was doing until after I did it,” Danielle said. AOPA reported that, despite Dolly supporting what she did, Danielle had never capitalized on her aunt’s fame.
She started flying in 2003 in Cessna 150s and 170s, then served as an Air National Guard pilot with the 118th Wing in Nashville, the 123rd Airlift Wing in Kentucky and the 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis. She flew C-130s and C-5s around the world and in combat, became an aircraft commander in 2012 and deployed several times.
Her military record includes the Combat Action Medal and the Air Medal, a place on the Commodore’s List of Flying Excellence during undergraduate pilot training, and Distinguished Graduate honors from C-5 initial qualification training.
Then her aviation career came full circle. In 2014, she became an airline pilot, initially flying the Airbus A320 family. Today she flies international routes for American Airlines on the Boeing 787.
In 2025, Lt. Col. Danielle Parton retired from the Tennessee Air National Guard after serving as the 118th Wing’s Public Affairs Officer. The woman who started her airline career working in the cabin had gone on to fly military transports in combat and, eventually, the Dreamliner.
