Colonel Deanna Ketterer, Tennessee Gamma, United States Air Force
DeAnna Ketterer’s path to becoming an Air Force Colonel began in a college classroom. A love of math and science led her to the University of Tennessee to study aerospace engineering, but it wasn’t long before she realized she didn’t want to build airplanes—she wanted to fly them. She joined the Air Force ROTC, switched to industrial engineering and charted a course that would span nearly three decades of military service before her retirement, followed by a career as a pilot for United Airlines.
After earning her wings, DeAnna’s military career took her across the globe. She flew C-5 aircraft out of California, as well as Learjets and 737s in Germany, and later held leadership roles at the Pentagon and Air Force Reserve Headquarters.
One of her proudest moments came while flying a C-5 filled with Army troops returning from deployment. Determined to get them home to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in time for Thanksgiving, DeAnna executed an inflight refueling—taking on 11,000 gallons of fuel from a tanker aircraft midair, one of the most challenging maneuvers a pilot can perform. “The collective pride of the entire crew radiated around the flight deck,” she says. “We knew we were getting them home on time.”
At times, the challenges she faced came not from the missions themselves, but from cultural and systemic bias. While deployed in the Middle East, DeAnna’s request to fuel her aircraft was ignored simply because she was a woman. “I stood there in my flight suit, rank on my shoulder, in front of the aircraft—and they still wouldn’t acknowledge me,” she says. She ultimately asked her male second-in-command to step in, and the request was granted. “Most of the challenges I had were due to biases, not because of something I did or didn’t do. The most important thing I could do was let my work speak for itself.”
DeAnna credits Pi Phi for laying the groundwork for the camaraderie she later found in the military. “As a Pi Phi, I learned I did not need to figure everything out on my own—I had sisters to help me,” she says. That sense of support followed her through the ranks and across continents, from reconnecting with sisters in Germany to living near her best friend and pledge sister in Georgia.
The Pi Phi value of Sincere Friendship continues to resonate deeply with DeAnna. “Friendships in the military often carry a depth that’s hard to replicate anywhere else,” she says. “The same is true for the relationships I have in Pi Phi—friends who are more like family.”
Published May 1, 2026