On Thursday, Theresa Claiborne, who became the first Black woman to be a pilot in the United States Air Force, retired from flying after 34 years with United Airlines.

“I’ve had a great career,” Claiborne told CNN Travel before she set off for her final flight. “And it’s time for me to park the brakes for the final time on a big airplane.”

The trailblazing aviator also turned 65 on Sunday.

“Birthday mood, I’m 65 y’all!” she wrote in the caption of a post on Instagram.

Claiborne’s aviation career began on June 20, 1981, when she was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, having belonged to the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps in college. When she graduated from her flight training, she didn’t realize she had made history.

“I’m very happy I didn’t know because I think that at the age of 22, I don’t think I would have been able to handle that pressure,” she noted in a recent video by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.