support of the annual Reforger exercises. During the American invasion of Grenada in October 1983, her aircraft flew troops of the 82nd Airborne Division from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina to Grenada, and took thirty-six medical students back. Although women were not supposed to fly in combat, the USAF gave her combat pay for the mission, and awarded her the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. After nine months as a co-pilot, she was upgraded to first pilot. After attending aircraft commander school at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, and aerial refueling training, she was upgraded to aircraft commander in June 1984. From August 1986 to June 1989, Collins was assigned to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, where she was an assistant professor in mathematics, teaching courses on calculus and linear algebra, and a T-41 instructor pilot. Through the Air Force Institute of Technology, she earned a Master of Science in operations research from Stanford University in 1986, and a Master of Arts in space systems management from Webster University in 1989. She had begun dating a fellow C-141 pilot, James P. (Pat) Youngs, in August 1983. Youngs was also posted to the Air Force Academy, as a golf instructor. They were married on 1 August 1987. Youngs eventually left the USAF to fly as a commercial pilot for Delta Air Lines, thereby giving himself the flexibility to follow Collins as her career progressed. Earning an advanced degree improved her chances of being selected for the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, but USAF rules required officers to pay back their tuition by serving with the duty assignment that provided the funding. This meant that she was supposed to remain at the Air Force Academy for three years. She hoped that this rule would be waived, but her first two applications for the USAF Test Pilot School were rejected on these grounds. When she applied for a third time in 1989, she had been in the USAF for longer than the ten-year maximum allowed before entering the USAF Test Pilot School, but this time a waiver was granted. In the meantime, Captain Jacquelyn Susan "Jackie" Parker became the first woman to graduate from the USAF Test Pilot School in 1988. Collins became the second woman pilot to attend when she joined Class 89B in June 1989. She was also the most