Chapter 3: The Address From the Stage
The commandant walked to the microphone, and the hall went quiet, and my father — I could see him from the wings — settled back with the satisfied face of a man about to watch someone else’s child graduate.
“Before we present this class,” the commandant said, “I want to speak about the cadet giving today’s address. She finished first among four hundred. She holds this academy’s highest honor for leadership and character. A number of the officers in this room traveled a long way specifically to see her commissioned, because her record over these four years has already reached well beyond these walls.
