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Foreword Carrie Ann Alford In 1988, thanks to the new-fangled invention of the VCR, my friends and I watched the movie Top Gun about 300 times. Unlike my girlfriends, who zeroed in on the beach volleyball scene, I was mesmerized by the fl ight sequences. Visions of being a fi ghter pilot danced in my head. I was com- pletely undeterred to learn that women were not allowed to fl y fi ghter jets or serve in combat—I fi gured that would all be sorted out by the time I was old enough to fl y. And it was—thanks to women like newly appointed Arizona senator Martha McSally (Col. USAF, Ret.) and other trailblazing women. Math and less than 20/20 vision were my actual downfalls. In 2003, I was recruited by the U.S. Navy to serve after applying for a civilian communications position at Great Lakes Naval Station in my home- town of Chicago. However, my minor-in-civilian-life heart condition had just been put on the “no go” list. I was once again thwarted and destined to sit on the sidelines, while others served. In my master’s program in legislative affairs at George Washington Uni- versity, I focused on national security policy and wrote my master’s thesis on the policy ramifi cations of women in combat. I saw it as a fundamental, con- stitutional right. Every citizen, man and woman, has the responsibility to serve the nation from which we have received so much. Additionally, with the current two wars and recruiting issues on the home front, why would we automatically discount 50 percent of the population? I argued that the his- tory of women in combat in the United States is as old as our nation. Two of the women immortalized as “Molly Pitcher” during the Revolutionary War were Mary Hayes McCauley and Margaret Corbin. The facts may be shrouded in myth at this point, but one thing is clear—contemporary accounts state both women fought bravely during battle, handling artillery while dodging incoming fi re from the enemy. Both women received military pensions from the U.S. government for their actions on the battlefi eld.