“You’ll never get anywhere,” they mocked me at dinner. The next day, dad’s boss walked in and said, “Good morning, Colonel.” Their forks dropped when…

My name is Cassandra Rhys. I’m 30 years old, a Colonel in the United States Army, and tomorrow morning, I’ll sit across from my father and brother during a crucial defense contract review. What they don’t know is that I’m the Pentagon liaison with final sign-off authority for the entire project.

It’s been five years since I walked out of this house and didn’t look back.

I was tired of being the family’s letdown—the daughter who “threw away” her future by joining the military instead of heading to business school. My father once scoffed that the army was for people with no real ambitions. That was the last honest conversation we ever had.’