Having a bunch of medals and badges doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve achieved anything, you’ve got to do something beyond yourself to make a difference in life. Seek to be consequential in whatever you do.

I think the public doesn't understand that one of the reasons I haven't stood up for myself is because in order to do that, I have to stoop to a level that further humiliates other people.

The word is a label and I don't like it at all.

It's reducing my entire professional career and background to this one word [mistress].

It's part of the reason I decided to speak out now. This was the tipping point for me. If it's O.K. for [David Petraeus ] to campaign for a job in the administration, then I'm going to campaign to get back out there, too.

We had to communicate through our lawyers a couple of times over the years, and [David Petraeus] told me that people have been like, "Good job, Dave." Congratulating him. That's the double standard. I've concluded that sharing it won't change anything.

Sometime ago, I teamed up with a former Marine attack helicopter pilot. We were both frustrated by biased coverage of women in the military and said, let's form some kind of nonprofit entity where we can start highlighting the prevalence of bias in the media.