On May 20, 2009 America lost one of its best.

First Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, 25, died Wednesday near Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack.

Schulte was the first female graduate of the Air Force Academy to be killed in action. One of her friends wrote:

Ros was truly an exceptional person. Usually when you hear that about someone who just died, it’s almost always exaggeration, if not pure BS. With Ros, it’s not. She passed up on the Ivy leagues to go to the Air Force Academy. She qualified for state in five different sports in high school, was an all-American in college, a qualified pilot. She was ALWAYS kind to others. She went out of her way to call her mom and dad two or three times a week every week she was here. Sorry I don’t do that, Mom and Dad. No one did, except for Ros. She dreamed of getting out of the air force to settle down and start a family. She didn’t drink. She didn’t like the lifestyle of the military — said it didn’t work well for family. She wanted to be a successful business owner (like her mom), but worried that would interfere with raising a family.

More coverage of the female warfighter’s loss:

CNN

KSDK

Ladies of Liberty