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Her mother Laurie Ourada described her as outgoing and inquisitive, even as a child.

“She always liked to be busy and to have a challenge – ride bike faster, climb the tree higher, read a bigger book, write the best essay, ride the rack when baling straw or hay and stack the bales higher,” Laurie Ourada said.

So it came as no surprise to her parents when Andrea Ourada, now 29, chose to become a pilot.

“The day that aviation won my heart was when I was young, 5 or 6 years old,” she said.

Andrea Ourada was at home at her parents’ farm near Lucan, Minn., when an aerial photographer needed a place to land. He radioed his airfield and asked them to call Terry and Laurie Ourada to see if it was all right for him to land in their field.

“Mom and Dad were OK with this, so we all ran out to watch,” she said. “I was absolutely amazed.”

Ourada joined the National Guard at age 17, following in the footsteps of her parents and grandparents, who also served in the U.S. military. She said she had “no specific reason for joining, other than the opportunity for a new challenge and to meet new people.”

She graduated from Wabasso High School in 1997 and pursued a law enforcement degree at Minnesota State University – Mankato while in the Guard.

“In my third year of college I decided that I wanted to do something different,” she said. “I was ready for a new challenge.”

Ourada decided to pursue aviation studies in addition to law enforcement. She fell in love with flying and talked with the aviation unit of the National Guard in St. Paul, Minn., in hopes of being able to fly.

Her parents, Terry and Laurie, were not surprised by her decision to become a pilot.

“We were proud to know that she again was challenging herself against the best in America,” Laurie Ourada said. “There was and is a need for good pilots and she stepped forward.”

“We as her parents stand behind her in every new adventure,” she said.

After graduation, Andrea Ourada worked as company commander of Bravo Company of the 834th Aviation Support Battalion and also worked at the officer preparatory academy at Camp Ripley. She was deployed to Iraq in August 2007.

“I was actually very proud to be given the opportunity to serve. It is something that I have always wanted to do as a soldier,” she said. “I feel that I am doing ‘my job’.”

“I was also nervous, scared, frustrated, anxious and sad about leaving my family and friends for so long,” she said.

Her family was also scared for her but knew she was very capable of doing her job.

“She is very hard working, always does the best job possible and never gives up,” her younger brother Brandon said.

As an aviation captain, Andrea Ourada leads other soldiers. She is also a public affairs officer and has been interviewed by both local and national news outlets.

“I enjoy the challenge of flying,” she said. “Being a pilot requires constant training, learning new systems as they come out, and flying with all these changes.”

On Christmas Day 2007 Andrea Ourada and the Minnesota-based 2-147th Assault Helicopter Battalion flew a historic Blackhawk mission under combat conditions into and around Baghdad. Every soldier in the two Blackhawk helicopters – four pilots, four door-gunners – was female.

“It was exciting,” Andrea Ourada said in a February 2008 Parade Magazine article. “But it was also routine. We’re pilots — no problem. There isn’t any question about our abilities.”

And that is the attitude she holds about being a woman pilot – it should not be considered strange or questioned; it is her job.

“The problem I see is the perception girls have growing up,” she told Parade. “The limitations are not real — we can do the things we dream about. Of all the jobs somebody might think females wouldn’t do, maybe flying in combat in Iraq is one of them. But here we are. We’re doing it.”

Ourada and her 2-147’s pilots and crew fly a variety of missions, including what is called “the Baghdad Shuffle,” which involves moving troops, other American and Iraqi personnel and “high-value” packages around the country.

“We are most proud of who she is, not what she has done… She definitely has left a mark on this world and as her parents we are proud that we could give her the ‘wings’ to fly, to become all she wanted to become,” Laurie Ourada said.

Andrea Ourada will continue her work in the National Guard when she finishes her tour in Iraq around September. When asked what she wants to do when she returns to the United States, she replied “something challenging.”