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"At that point, I realized that not only was the policy wrong, it was stupid," McSally says. McSally wore the abaya six times while traveling off base on military business. She did not travel off base for leisure for 13 months.

While on base, McSally found strength through the support and prayer of fellow Christians on the worship team, which she led.

McSally was raised in an observant Catholic family. Her father died suddenly from a stroke when she was 12. "His death very much rocked my world," she says. "I was very confused in my grief."

McSally plunged headlong into a tumultuous adolescence, determined to "be the best of the best" in honor of her father.

After graduating as valedictorian of her high school, McSally headed for the Air Force Academy, where she was miserable. "Something was missing," she says. McSally began attending Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings. During her sophomore year, she gave her life to God at the Weekend of Light, an annual evangelical outreach event put on by the Air Force Academy chapel and local parachurch organizations.

"That weekend I realized God was clearly speaking to my heart, inviting me to have a personal relationship with him," McSally says. "It was the most awesome moment of my life."

McSally has worshiped within the nondenominational Protestant chapel community at various bases. "It's been a real process of God changing me and softening me," she says.

Yet McSally still has the grit, toughness, and daring one would expect in a top pilot. These qualities have served her well. While McSally patrolled the no-fly zone over Iraq, her plane was briefly locked on by Iraqi surface-to-air missile target-tracking radar, forcing her to take evasive action.

McSally was one of the first seven women to train as a fighter pilot. A champion triathlete, she was promoted to lieutenant colonel four years before her peers. "Anything Martha does is at a level that is beyond normal," says Lea Tims, a close friend.

Tims met McSally at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where Tims's husband served as chaplain.

McSally would round up "whole groups of people who had never been to chapel before" and pay their way to retreats, Tims says. "She was really tenaciously pursuing people's souls."

McSally says that she has been reprimanded and accused of disloyalty and being a bad example. In her formal performance report, her immediate supervisor in Saudi Arabia purposefully left out a recommendation for command—a serious blow.

But McSally remains optimistic.

"I am very grateful that if I go back to Saudi today, I will no longer be forced to wear clothing of a faith I do not follow."

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous news coverage of McSally's suit includes:

McSally believes career has been harmed — Army Times (Feb. 6, 2002)

Saudi Dress Code for Female Troops Revised — The Washington Post (Jan. 23, 2002)

Military eases policy on Muslim garb — USA Today (Jan. 23, 2002)

US eases servicewomen's dress code — BBC (Jan. 23, 2002)

U.S. Military Changes Female Policy in Saudi Arabia — Reuters (Jan. 23, 2002)

CBS "60 minutes" Profiles Rutherford Institute Case Involving Decorated Female Fighter Pilot Forced to Wear Muslim Garb — The Rutherford Institute (Jan. 22, 2002)

The Air Force Flier In the Ointment — The Washington Post (Jan. 6, 2002)

In 1998, Christianity Today profiled John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute.

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March 11 2002, Vol. 46, No. 3