Yelena gave her two comrades a small smile.  "I don't know if it was worth it.  She seemed very angry.  Do you think that she will try to get back at me?"  She was glad to have a bit of a rapport with her commrades, and she smiled weakly. "I suppose it was worth it though... If I had known they wouldn't have boots, I wouldn't have worn a heel."  She said.  "My calves are killing me!"  She says with a small laugh.<br/><br/>We take our new uniforms and head for the barracks, enduring some cat-calls from leather-jacket-clad male pilots on the way. When we arrive, a woman no older than any of us is waiting to greet us. She shows each of us to a cot and tells us to put on our new uniforms.<br/><br/>As we dress into the uniforms.  The training officer stands straight and begins to rattle off a well rehearsed introduction.  The woman with the dark eyes paces the room as we get dressed, not giving us any privacy.<br/><br/>"I’m Senior Lieutenant Petrova. What’s your name? Where are you from?  We’ll be dividing you out into pilots and navigators based on aptitude, but you will be qualified for either seat. Pilots in front, navigators in back.  These airplanes are simple. Fuel and oil are gravity fed, so don’t fly upside-down. An air cooled engine. No oil filter, just a mesh screen. Open cockpits.  Many things can go wrong. Flying at night is strange and challenging.  Memorize your cockpit layout."  She gestured in the air as if she was in a cockpit, flipping imaginary switches and turning imaginary knobs. "Down and to your left: Throttle, fuel mix lever, fuel cutoff switch, carburetor heat and elevator trim.  Left dash switch bank: Pitot heat, master battery, panel lights, two magneto switches. Gages—Fuel, altitude, airspeed, heading, attitude. Climb rate and engine RPM. Oil pressure and temperature. Fuel pressure gage. Cylinder temperature."  She stopped pacing to look us up and down, "I’ve reviewed your files and you are quite a mixed bag, aren’t you?"<br/><br/>When we are dressed, she directs questions at us.  When turning to Marina, she asks,<br/>"What did you do when your first flight instructor failed you because you were a woman?"<br/><br/>She then turned to Elena, "What did you lie about on your regimental intake form?"<br/><br/>then to Valentina, "Why did you want to join the 586th Fighter Regiment so badly?"<br/><br/>and finally to Yelena, "Whose funeral did you miss by volunteering for flight training?"