Book excerpt: Lt. Kara Hultgreen was just twenty-nine and the U.S. Navy's first fully qualified female fleet fighter pilot when her Tomcat slammed into the Pacific Ocean in October 1994. Her death was not only a tragic loss to her family but a serious blow to a navy struggling to redefine the role of women in its ranks. The image of this beautiful and vibrant young woman with her fierce warplane -- plastered across the front pages of newspapers around the world after the crash -- provoked strong emotions and gave new life to the controversy. Written by Kara's mother, Sally Spears, the book goes behind the headlines to tell the story of a remarkable woman who made history. Spears presents Kara's shortcomings along with her strengths -- the ups and downs in her personal life along with her professional career. She draws freely from Kara's journals, kept from the time Kara entered the navy, and from extensive interviews with her daughter's friends and peers as well as some of her commanding officers. From the athletic teenager who dreamed of becoming an astronaut to her pursuit of that dream earning a degree in aerospace engineering and joining the navy, this book chronicles Kara's efforts to become a navy pilot. It demonstrates how her outspokenness sometimes created problems in an environment hostile to women and how her sense of humor allowed her to cope. It describes how her ambition to fly combat aircraft collided with the customs of the navy, the mores of society -- and, until the repeal of the combat exclusion rules in 1991, with the laws of the United States.