It's a milestone for sure, but I'm not really sure why some people are trying to make this as big of a controversy (on either side) as some people are.

The Blue Angels have had female members as the Events Coordinator (which is usually given to an F/A-18 WSO... think Goose from Top Gun) as they currently do right now (a Marine F/A-18D WSO), and have in the past.

As far as jobs go, she isn't flying F/A-18s because she didn't come from an F/A-18 background. Team members are selected from the community for the slot that needs filling, so since she is a Marine Corps' KC-130 pilot, she's only eligible to fly Fat Albert, the C-130 here.

And most of the controversy over "why hasn't there been one sooner!" is simply because there just aren't that many slots versus the number of great candidates.

For example, the Blues only need to take on a handful of new pilots a year - one for each of the 7 F/A-18s the team uses and the pilots for Fat Albert. But that's a bit misleading, since #1 is the Commanding Officer, who will have put in at least 15 years in as an aviator at that point to assume command of the Blues.

Add on the fact that while the Navy and Marines have had females flying the F/A-18 Hornet and KC-130 for more than two decades now, those communities are small. The % of pilots that actually get selected for F/A-18s for the Navy and Marines, and especially for the KC-130, is actually in the minority of pilot's out of flight school.

Add on that there aren't that many females officers in the military, and even fewer that are female, and you can see that there have only ever been a handful of eligible women to fly with the Blue Angels over the years.