Archuleta was to be married this past June, and left behind her 4-year-old son, Donnie. She was a community kid–Girl Scouts, third-degree black belt in karate. At 7 she’d announced her intention to become the country’s first female president. At 20, she became the first female University of New Mexico ROTC graduate to earn her pilot’s wings. “She wasn’t happy unless she was rising to the top,” says her father. She wanted others to soar with her. Days before she died, Archuleta wrote to a third-grade pen pal: “This is how we show the Afghanistan people that we care.”
