KIM HERBERT
Herndon

Herbert is on the verge of something that fate denied her big brother: a VMI diploma.

Alex Herbert was in the middle of his rat year in 1993 when he was killed in a car crash.

The first time Kim Herbert visited the institute was for his memorial service, nearly four years before she would enroll there and be assigned to the same room 434 that he had occupied.

"If he'd have lived, I probably never would have come," she said. Her brother was strongly against VMI admitting women. "I probably would have been brainwashed."

Today, she finds herself still fighting the battle over coeducation.

"If you don't think women belong here, then you need to find a different school," is the message she has for her classmates. "What is it going to take for me to prove that women belong here?"

A reluctant pioneer like all her female classmates, Herbert has nonetheless learned that being one of VMI's first female cadets gets the attention of employers during interviews.

"But God forbid we even breathe it here."

Her next stop is Crystal City, where she'll be a civilian contracting specialist with the Department of the Navy. She's had enough of the military life, she said. Her father, a retired Air Force colonel, suggested the National Guard.

“I said, ‘No, thank you.’ ”