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Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!

The left-wing thinkers and intellectuals have been more misogynist with me than the army. They can't accept that a young woman is able to think, and they underestimate the intellectual work and study I might have done. They ask who is the man behind me.

When you're trained for battle, the idea is that it will be man against man.

When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat.

Some people have a misunderstanding about the Army. Some people think, 'Hey, you're in the military, and everything is super-hierarchical, and you're in an environment that is intolerable of criticism, and people don't want frank assessments.' I think the opposite is the case.

A lot of child soldiers lose their minds.

It won't be a question of how well-trained or well-equipped the army is but one of the authority it serves.

When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you... Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion, and you know it can happen to you.

I've been extremely lucky having been in the army when I was a boy of fourteen.