Biographical Note

Mary Elizabeth Seiler was a United States Air Force pilot in the Gulf War for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm and later an American Airlines pilot.

Seiler attended the United States Air Force Academy from 1984-1988. She married a classmate after graduation and both attended pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma as part of class 90-1, possibly as the first married couple to go through training together at Vance. After training, they were transferred to Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California where she trained on the KC-135R and her husband trained in the Boeing B-52. The couple was then stationed at Loring Air Force Base in Maine from mid-1989 until mid-1992. During this time, Seiler was deployed as part of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, first to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and later to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. She was honorably discharged in mid-1992, while her husband was transferred to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Post-service, Seiler worked as a figure-skating teacher for a few years. In 1995, she was hired by the 931st Aerial Refueling Group at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas to fly KC-135Rs. In 1996, she transferred to Tinker Air Force Base and the 507th Air Fueling Squadron, "the Oakies." During her time there, Seiler worked as a GS-13 air reserve technician flying KC-135Rs. In 1999, she was hired by American Airlines as a pilot, and as of 2026, continues to work for the airline.

Seiler married Mike Toney in July 1988. The couple had a daughter, Elizabeth, and son, Joe. At some point they divorced. She married her second husband, Henrik Melen, in 1998. The couple had two daughters, Sarah and Kristina.

Gender

• female

Occupations

• Women air pilots

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