My daughter frantically called me the other day after a vehicle had run into her while she was driving to school. She was understandably upset: as a teenage driver it was the first time she had ever been involved in an accident. She was stopped at a light and the guy behind her must have had his foot slip because without warning he smacked her truck really good. Luckily there was no damage, just some scratches on her tow hitch. His vehicle wasn’t nearly as lucky.

Her accident reminded me of an email I received that wasn’t intended as a joke–at least I don’t think it was–yet made me laugh hard. At the risk of sounding like an insensitive redneck, the email I received a few years back was from a guy in Texas who was pleading with me to help his cause against the use of trailer hitches. To say the least, his email had me laughing out loud.

His request was a simple one, to please consider including an article on the “virtues of removing the trailer hitch between uses.” That’s an actual quote from him and for the record, there is no way I would have chosen the word “virtue” here.

This Salute The Troops feature comes from Norfolk, Va., where Austin Eslinger is stationed with the Navy. The Gainesville, Mo., native left for bootcamp when he was 18, temporarily saying goodbye to his life of working on the family farm and riding bulls in the rodeo in the pursuit of serving his country.

If you look around at a rodeo, you’re sure to find plenty of diesel trucks. Hauling animals is a major part of the setup and takedown process at the event, and for that you need a large vehicle with a powerful engine. Power is something diesel engines know a little something about.

Sarina Kissell didn’t just follow her brothers into the military at age 19; she made history. It was 2016 and the Army had opened combat arms to females. She became one of the first 13Fs, or Forward Observers, which is an artillery position in which she’s attached to the infantry and calls for artillery fire as needed. She also communicates with the aircraft and can fire naval guns.

On top of all of that, Sarina was the first female 13F Paratrooper in Army history. She would jump out of perfectly good airplanes, and even earned her German Jump Wings when she jumped with the Germans. The impact Sarina made as a woman in the military was significant, and she’s aware of it.

“It meant that no single person is made for a job because of your sex,” Sarina said. “If you set your mind to it, anything is possible.”