After her husband Sergey Kiryushkin graduated from the Kachin flying school and was sent to the Caucasus, she came with him and gave birth to their daughter Tamara in 1940.

Until May 1941 she worked for the Civil Air Fleet in Abkhazia, after which she briefly taught pilots at an aeroclub in the Moscow area.

[2][3] Shortly after receiving a notice that her husband died in 1942, Shulaykina volunteered for the military and was originally posted as a flight instructor, but after repeated requests to be sent to the front lines she was sent to learn to fly the Il-2 at the 3rd Naval Aviation School, and graduated from training in August 1944.

From then until May 1945 she served in the 7th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment under the command of twice Hero of the Soviet Union Aleksey Mazurenko.

She saw heavy combat in the battle of Königsberg; in total she flew 30 sorties on the Il-2, successfully destroying various vessels and inflicting damage on important targets.