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The whole family was fantastically fit; the house had six treadmills side by side in the workout room and an indoor pool complete with lane dividers that helped son Darwin qualify for the Olympic trials and made Laura an All-American. The parents never missed a swim meet. There were daily family runs 365 days a year, meaning, before presents could be opened on Christmas morning.
Of the four Strickland children only Elaine, 35, had to drop out of ROTC, and that was because of asthma; she is now a nurse in Boulder, Colo. Meanwhile, in addition to Laura, there is Darwin, 30, a JAG officer who has already shipped out from El Paso, Texas. Sister Janis, 32, who got a military scholarship to medical school, is likely to fly to the gulf this week, after last-minute practice in treating blown-off legs and catastrophic burns and the effects of poison gas. She advised Laura on medicines to carry with her and is aware that the day could come when she has to treat her sister. Therein lies some comfort for the Strickland parents in having three kids deployed at once. Mother Suzanne never turns off the news. "I think the best thing is for them all to be together," says her husband. "They will help each other. They would give their lives for the other one."
Jim's parents say that Laura's discipline rubbed off on him. Getting married was the best thing Jim ever did, adds his father James Richardson, a retired general in the South Carolina Coast Guard. "Because both of them are in helicopters, they can understand what the other is going through." Jim credits their mutual success to friendly competition: "The reason she is moving up so fast is that she got to see all of my mistakes and has been able to avoid them," he says with a smile. He has four years' seniority over her and insists that she will never outrank him, since he will retire before that ever happens. Jim also vows that he will never let his wife beat him in any physical-training event, a hard promise to keep: when they were in Korea, Laura's unit had a yearly Iron Man Contest, and after 5-ft. 4-in. Laura beat dozens of men to win the contest, the event was renamed the Iron Person Contest. "She has so much stamina, but at the same time she's very feminine," observes Jim's mother June of her daughter-in-law. "She is little but mighty."
Jim and Laura have found many pleasures in military life, but they give up many that most families take for granted--like a family vacation. They were standing at the airport baggage claim for a long-planned trip to Disney World when Laura got a call summoning her directly to Washington, to be interviewed by Vice President Al Gore. She was assigned to be his military aide, and the vacation has yet to be rescheduled.
Jim worked at the Pentagon while Laura was in the White House. She was always at Gore's side, carrying the briefcase with the nuclear-launch codes. "Only the very best are entrusted with the so-called nuclear football," says Gore. "She has a total dedication to excellence in everything she does." It was Laura's first assignment that involved working with other women, and it taught her something about herself. "I had got used to dealing with men all the time, and it made me very direct and even abrupt," she admits. "I found that I can be just as effective without having to change how I truly am."