The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is marking a sad milestone: the first combat-related death of a female graduate since the school opened to women in 1976.
First Lt. Roslyn Schulte, 25, was killed by a roadside bomb near Kabul in Afghanistan Tuesday.
Called Roz by family and friends, Schulte majored in political science at the academy and graduated with military and academic honors in 2006.
She was traveling off-base when her vehicle was hit by the bomb. An Afghan civilian also was killed in the explosion, according to the Pentagon.
She was an intern for former Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard in 2005, when he was chairman of the strategic subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Schulte assisted his staff with missile defense and other issues, Allard said.
“The interns who get these intersnships are high-quality students,” he said. “She certainly fit that role of high-quality intern and did a tremendous job in our office.
“My heart and my prayers go out to her family.”
Allard said Schulte’s passing did not affect his view on the role of women in combat zones.
“We leave that decision up to the Pentagon, but my position always has been to find the best person for the job.”
Schulte was captain of the Air Force Academy’s women’s lacrosse team.
“The Air Force Academy is deeply saddened by this tragic loss,” said Lt. Gen. John Regni, the academy’s superintendent, said in a statement released this afternoon.
“Our most heartfelt sympathies and condolences go out to the Schulte family. Our thoughts are with them during this very difficult time.”
Schulte was deployed to Afghanistan in February and was scheduled to leave in August. She was an intelligence officer assigned to the 13th Air Force’s 613th Air and Space Operations Center at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
Schulte grew up in Ladue, Mo., and she was a team captain and a high school all-American lacrosse player at John Burroughs School in St. Louis.
Her father, Robert Schulte, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he and his daughter had talked on the phone about Burroughs lacrosse team preparing for the state championship match Wednesday.
As it happened, the teams and fans observed a moment of silence in Schulte’s memory before the contest began.
Her parents said Schulte had dreamed of flying jets, but later pursued military intelligence and attained the rank of cadet commander, one of the highest honors at the academy.
“She would call me and say, ‘Dad, all these guys might fly the planes, but they follow me.’ She was a leader,” Robert Schulte said.
Women make up roughly 10 percent of the forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to military acocunts.
Ten Air Force Academy graduates have died since combat operations began in Afghanistan following 9/11.
Though the first female graduate killed by an enemy, Schulte is the second woman from the academy killed in service.
In April 1994, 1st Lt. Laura Piper, 25, died when her Black Hawk helicopter on routine patrol was shot down by a U.S. Air Force F-15 jet in what the military later called “a tragic series of errors.”
The friendly fire incident claimed 26 lives aboard two helicopters.
There have been 1,142 military deaths since fighting began in Afghanistan, including 680 Americans, 156 Britons and 118 Canadians. At least 2,843 American military person have been wounded in action in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
