As a Captain, Rossi was selected to attend Army Flight School at Fort Rucker. She was assigned to the Charter Member Class of the Army Aviation Branch in 1985 which included many notable graduates. This class was composed entirely of Commissioned Officers. The class was designed to commemorate the establishment of the branch for the first time since The Army Air Corps became the US Air Force after WWII. As the ranking officer she was made the class leader. Rossi served as a
CH-47 Chinook pilot with the
18th Aviation Brigade, commanding B Company, 2nd Battalion,
159th Aviation Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, stationed at
Hunter Army Airfield,
Savannah, Georgia. Her company deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of
Operation Desert Shield in 1990. Rossi was interviewed by CNN prior to the ground assault by Coalition forces. She said, Sometimes, you have to disassociate how you feel personally about the prospect of going into war and, you know, possibly see the death that's going to be out there. But personally, as an aviator and a soldier, this is the moment that everybody trains for – that I've trained for – so I feel ready to meet a challenge. Rossi led a flight of her company's CH-47 Chinook helicopters 50 miles (80 km) into Iraq on February 24, 1991, ferrying fuel and ammunition during the very first hours of the ground assault by the Coalition Forces. Her company would be involved in supply missions throughout the war. She was killed when her helicopter crashed into an unlit microwave tower in Northern Saudi Arabia on March 1, 1991, the day after the ceasefire agreement. == Personal life ==