The auditorium was very still.
“Captain Rachel Miller,” Admiral Carter said, “has been flying F-22 Raptors for nine years. She holds the distinction of being one of the most decorated active female fighter pilots in the United States Air Force. She has flown operational missions in three different theaters. She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross two years ago for actions I am not at liberty to describe in full, but that I can tell you required a kind of judgment and precision and courage that very few people in any profession ever achieve.”
He looked at the auditorium.
“The F-22 Raptor is the most advanced air superiority fighter in the world,” he said. “There are fewer than two hundred pilots certified to fly it in combat conditions. Captain Miller is one of them.”
I was standing on the stage beside my mother and I was looking at the freshman section, at the middle of the row where I had been sitting, at the general area where the boys who had made airplane noises at lunch were currently occupying seats. I could not see their specific expressions from this distance. I didn’t need to.
