Friday brought us the heartbreaking news that another member of the American military died in a combat zone. Roslyn L. Schulte, a 25-year-old first lieutenant in the Air Force, died from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack as she was traveling in a convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Schulte was a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
What hit me most about this event — aside from the tragedy of losing another military member to the ravages of war — is that it reminded me of another female Academy graduate who was lost during a deployment. The difference: that victim was a high school classmate of mine. We'd both entered the Air Force at about the same time, but her job very quickly took her overseas into a combat zone.
On April 14, 1994, First Lt. Laura Piper — who, like Roslyn Schulte, was also just 25 years old — was one of 26 people aboard a flight of two Army Black Hawk helicopters over Iraq. Two Air Force F-15 fighters mistakenly shot down the helicopters in a friendly-fire incident that is still vividly remembered today.
The aftermath of the tragedy compelled Laura's mother to write a book, Chain of Events, which accused
the military of pulling up short on its post-accident investigation and disciplinary actions against the personnel involved in the cascade of decisions that led to the shootdown. "[Laura] knew what she was doing," Laura's father told the New York Times. "She knew the danger. She was there to protect the Kurds. And I think she's a hero."
Regardless of how and why these deaths occurred, at the heart of the matter is the fact that we lost two young people who were just beginning their careers. More than that, as they were barely three years out of college, Schulte and Piper were just beginning their lives as individuals, on their own, each with unique talents to contribute. We'll never know what they might have accomplished if they'd been able to live out their lives as intended. They certainly deserved to, and now never will.
(Click here for CNN report on Roslyn Schulte)
(CBS News report on Laura Piper)
