I grew up in a wonderful small Iowa farm town. My friend Nicole Tilley lived on the edge of town by the highway. Perhaps she used to look down that road, wondering how far it could take her, because upon graduating high school, she rushed off to the U.S. Navy. It’s easy to imagine the destructive power of those big warships and the aircraft aboard our carriers. But instead of spending her enlistment in a specialty designed to take lives, Petty Officer 3rd Class Tilley worked to save people and to welcome life into the world. She served as a Navy corpsman.

Navy boot camp was a shock to Tilley, as it is to most recruits. In addition to discipline and other elements of the service, Tilley, from a little town where she knew everyone, had to adapt to living and working among people from many different backgrounds. But she adapted and embraced her new environment quickly, and after boot camp, she went to corps school for medical training. Later, she was assigned to work in labor and delivery at Naval Medical Center in San Diego. She had hoped to work on a helicopter rescue team, but she was 5 feet, 1 inch tall and 89 pounds. Too small. So when a corpsman slot opened, she took it.