When she slugged the sergeant of the guard in the mouth, Garza knocked flat any notion that VMI women were wilting daisies.

Three weeks into the ratline, fed up with being harassed by an upperclassman, Garza took a swing at him. He ducked, she hit the guard and was promptly suspended.

Garza spent a semester at Northern Virginia Community College, then returned to give the ratline another try. She left on her own after a few days.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," said her father, Pete Garza. "That school's not for everybody." Angelica Garza declined to talk to a reporter.

She's now a junior at Southwest Texas State University near Austin, majoring in business management. She works part time at a book distributor and lives with her parents in Manchaca.

"She has nothing but fond memories of VMI," Pete Garza said. He still wears the VMI T-shirts he bought in a fit of pride four years ago.

“It’s not like she says, ‘Dad, take that off, it gives me bad memories,’ ” he said. “There’s no real scars. It’s more like it’s a proud moment in history.”