She could have survived the remaining two months of the ratline, Hogan figures. It wasn't a lack of will that stopped her, or even her broken ankle.

"I couldn't afford to stay, basically."

VMI's records will forever show that Hogan was officially the first woman to enroll there. The daughter of a career National Guard man and a 911 dispatcher was the first to sign the matriculation book.

But she had made the trip east with only enough money for a semester's tuition and the hope of becoming a pilot like her father, a Vietnam veteran. Her family made a little too much to qualify for substantial financial aid but not enough to pay tuition or commit to student loans, she said. She hoped to line up scholarships, but not enough came through.

She resigned in January 1998.

"I loved it," she said recently. "It was like having 1,500 big brothers . . . I'm just thankful that I had the chance."

Today she drives a school bus in her hometown of about 4,000, and takes classes at Oregon State University when she saves enough money to pay for a term. She and her father raise horses as a hobby/business. She wants to be a veterinarian.

Her flurry of fame in the community has long since fizzled.

"There's a stack of newspapers in the pantry," she said. People in her new National Guard unit have asked, "Didn't you go to some school?"

"To me it's not a big deal. I didn't go there to be in the newspaper."