Air Force 1st Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte

Died May 20, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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25, of St. Louis; assigned to the Headquarters, Pacific Air Forces Command, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii; died May 20 near Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.

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Mo. town says farewell on Memorial Day

The Associated Press

CREVE COEUR, Mo. — On the day America honored its fallen war heroes, one of the latest of those heroes was remembered at a funeral service in suburban St. Louis.

Air Force 1st Lt. Roslyn Schulte, who was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, was buried May 25, five days after she was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. She was 25.

“Memorial Day will never be the same,” Rabbi Mark Shook told the hundreds who filled Congregation Temple Israel. “No one in this place will ever take Memorial Day for granted again.”

Officials say Schulte was the Air Force Academy’s 10th graduate — and first female graduate — killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Schulte grew up in Ladue. She captained a state championship lacrosse team at John Burroughs School in a wealthy area of St. Louis County. Friends described her as smart, compassionate and determined.

“It’s totally going to change our community,” said a friend, 27-year-old Elise Berger. “When someone that close to you dies, you have a new appreciation.”

Schulte dreamed of being a fighter pilot since age 12. At the academy, she was among the top in her class.

In her third year, she decided to pursue military intelligence instead of aviation, believing she could do more for her country in that role, said her brother, Todd, 28.

She was sent to Afghanistan in February. There, her parents said, she helped teach Afghan military officials how to gather and interpret intelligence. She was traveling in a convoy from Camp Eggers, Kabul, to Bagram Airfield when she was killed.

Schulte met her boyfriend, Air Force Capt. Bruce Cohen, at Hickam, where both were stationed. At the funeral, he tearfully revealed how he planned to propose when she returned to the United States in August.

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Leadership was where Schulte excelled

The Associated Press

Robert Schulte remembers how his daughter, as a young girl, organized a group of her peers on the first day of summer camp to perform a play. In high school, Roslyn L. Schulte also captained the lacrosse team and became an all-American lacrosse player.

“She wanted to be in charge. And she was,” he said.

Schulte, 25, of St. Louis died May 20 near Kabul of wounds suffered from an explosive. She was assigned to Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.

Friends remembered how some had questioned her about the idea of working in a group made up mostly of men. “Do you think they are going to bully me?” she would defiantly respond.

At the Air Force Academy, Roslyn Schulte majored in political science, interned for former Sen. Alan Allard, R-Colo., became a group commander — one of the academy’s highest positions — and captained the lacrosse team, said her mother, Suzie.

Schulte graduated in 2006 and went into military intelligence instead of aviation. She went to Afghanistan in February.

“She knew how to talk to chiefs of staff, to generals, to privates, and they listened,” Robert Schulte said. “And that’s what we needed, a great leader of people.”