Moss held back tears as they went through the learning points of the engagement. She knew Coach had set her up by calling the wrong status, but there was nothing she could do or say to change what she had done. Her only option was to take the sole responsibility so as not to be seen as quibbling. She hated it with every fiber of her being.

As they concluded the flight debrief, Coach cleared Magic off. He gave Chloe an apologetic look as he walked out and closed the door behind him. Chloe took a seat at the briefing room table as Coach stood. She had led the flight portion of the debrief, but now it was time for Coach, as her instructor, to give the instructional feedback.

“Ok, wow, where to begin?” he said with a sigh as he flipped over his lineup card to read the notes he had scribbled.

Chloe said nothing and sat with her pen in hand, ready to take notes.

“First off, your brief. You need to get with Pounder and work on it. There are mandatory briefing items for all flights. The SII is one of them.”

“Yes sir,” Chloe responded as she scribbled on her lineup card. She still thought it was utterly ridiculous to brief something that had no applicability to her mission. No one else in the squadron ever briefed it.

“We talked about ground ops. You have to start the flight with a commanding presence. Don’t fuck up the check in right out the gate,” he said as he checked off the second bullet point on his card.

Chloe nodded. There was no pointing in arguing. It wouldn’t get her anywhere. She was used to it by now anyway. The whole squadron did this to her when they flew with her.

Coach laughed as he read the next bullet point on his card. “You shot me. That’s the first time I’ve ever been killed by my own flight lead. Make sure you wear your blues when you brief the squadron. Always make sure you positively ID what you’re shooting at.”

Chloe’s eyes welled up. Fratricide was a big deal. She had never done it before, and she had always thought she never would. There was just no excuse for it, even if he had talked her into it airborne. She still was the one that hit the pickle button.

“And finally the fuel issue. That’s the part that concerns me the most. You just about ran yourself out of gas and made the Operations Group look bad with Miami Center by declaring an emergency and making them reroute airliners all over the place. Your poor airmanship does not make it ok to just declare an emergency whenever you fuck up. You should never have gotten yourself into this position in the first place.” Coach paused for effect. He put his lineup card on the table and took off his reading glasses.

“Now you know, I don’t have anything against women flying fighters or even being in the military. I think it’s great,” Coach continued, “but if this is the performance you’re going to give us, you’re not living up to the expectations set by those women that have gone before you. No one is going to give you a free pass just because you happen to be a woman. If you can’t hack it, maybe you should think about a career in the USO instead.”