Woman in Combat

The deaths of certain strangers stay with you. A once unknown face becomes first recognizable, then familiar, then unforgettable.

That’s certainly the feeling I get when I look at pictures of Roslyn Schulte.

I first read about Schulte many months ago, when we printed a too-small story marking her passing. There have been 5,000 American soldiers killed while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. It is bad enough we too often undervalue their sacrifice; what’s worse is that by passing over the particulars of their stories, we miss the opportunity to aspire to the example they set.

Even among the exceptional, Schulte stood out.

“Usually, when you hear that about someone who just died, it’s almost always an exaggeration,” Navy Lt. Shivan Sivalingam, Lt. Schulte’s closest friend at Camp Eggers, told a reporter. “With Roz, 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.”

When the French writer Bernard-Henri Lévy crossed the United States in 2005 for The Atlantic, following de Tocqueville’s footsteps to describe the true America, he came upon the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and described a cadet whose presence and demeanor confounded any notions of arrogant American imperialism.

“This girl from St. Louis, Roslyn Schulte, long brown hair pulled back in a bun, beautiful, gentle, deep gaze, who went to one of the best high schools in the country.”

On May 20, 2009, Air Force 1st Lt. Roslyn Schulte, a member of the U.S. intelligence team, traveled as part of a convoy from Camp Eggers, Kabul, to Bagram Airfield to participate in a Joint Task Force Intelligence Sharing Conference.

Near Kabul, she was killed instantly by the explosion of a roadside bomb. She was the first female U.S. Air Force Academy graduate to be killed in action.  She was 25.

Last Memorial Day, about 1,300 relatives, friends, U.S. military personnel and community members gathered at Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis. Robert and Susie Schulte are longtime members there, and their daughter was confirmed there.

“Memorial Day will never be the same,” said Rabbi Mark Shook, who presided over the 11 a.m. funeral service. “No one in this place now will ever take Memorial Day for granted again.

“Now we know that real people die in war. Now we know that people with loving parents die in war. Now we know that people we honor and respect die in war.”

Of course the mourners had already known that — we all do — but Schulte’s death left a void that words fail to fill.

The eulogies about her describe a woman of great achievement and promise. At John Burroughs School, she played field hockey, swam, was captain of the state championship lacrosse team and became an All-American lacrosse player, the only All-American at her high school.

She told Lévy she chose the military over the Ivy Leagues because she wanted to fly small, fast planes. But those close to her know differently. She wanted, said her father, to stand for something larger than herself.

Last weekend, a front page story in The New York Times told how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have put more women in combat than ever before — at least 66 women have died in combat in both wars, and 620 have been wounded. These statistics challenge both U.S. military policy as well as our own notions of who our defenders and protectors are. 

Just as the Iraq insurgency and al-Qaeda terror erased conventional battle lines, so have women like Schulte obliterated the idea of who a real warrior is.

Schulte brought to the front all the abilities of a soldier and values that extended far beyond the battlefield. In Afghanistan, she worked 14 hours a day in her job and spent three more hours each day organizing a charity for Afghan refugees.

“It’s a small solace that she was truly an inspiration,” her brother Todd Schulte said at her memorial service. “She was an incredibly impressive person, a brave soul and leader. She was the most fundamentally generous and kind person I knew.”

Bob and Susie Schulte told me via e-mail that they are establishing a cadet award for outstanding Character Development and Leadership in their daughter’s honor at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“Roz’s ideals of Excellence, Honor and Service to others before self are an inspiration for many,” Bob Schulte wrote. (You can contribute at: Association of Graduates Air Force Academy Fund, Lt. Roslyn Schulte Memorial, 3116 Academy Drive, USAF Academy, CO 80840-4475.)

Lt. Schulte was buried at New Mount Sinai Cemetery in Affton. There was a 21-gun salute and flyover by an Air Force C-17 transport. She was buried with all of her medals, including the Bronze Star, and a couple of childhood dolls.

May we all live up to her example.