19. Copping an Attitude
Ihrke quickly realized that her attitude was everything. She watched as fellow female cadets broke under the pressure. That was not going to be her. “I came in guns blazing in order to show that I wasn’t someone that could be pushed around, brushed off, or not taken seriously,” she told the Daily Mail. “It was hard but it was also completely necessary.” For Ihrke, it wasn’t enough to be a good female soldier. She wanted her peers to recognize her as a good soldier, period.