still the small band of women was not without allies both on the quad and off the most obvious and visible were w-1s first officers male upperclassmen who volunteered to lead the female cadets through their tumultuous first years their original commanding officer steven don roper 75 said that while it didnt make him very popular at the time he remains proud of the work he and others did during those initial semesters my goal was at the end of the year to basically walk away standing as an outfit roper said and we did more than that we excelled in certain areas we certainly excelled in unity and we excelled in learning how to protect each others backs because thats exactly what we did the push for progress in the spring of 1975 w-1 made its first public debut in full uniform marching across simpson drill field at the annual military day review they received a standing ovation roper said that was a huge part of the year for us he recalled everything that we put into it had become worth it on that day the women of w-1 would continue to face pushback especially when they started living on the quad the following semester but as pranglins classmate ann sheridan 78 recalls they were starting to find their footing you learned that the friendly face isnt necessarily friendly but the guy chewing you out if theyre trying to make you better is your friend said sheridan she later served four years on active duty in the us army before moving into the army reserves and pursuing a career as a professional engineer slowly but surely the women of the corps were making new opportunities for themselves too the womens drill team was formed and soon found considerable success in competition: we were good pranglin said it was on that team that she and sheridan became acquainted with melanie zentgraf 80 a w-1 underclassman who later became a founding member of squadron 14 a second all-female outfit specifically for air force cadets the class of 80 wanted to be exceptional sheridan recalls and zentgraf fit the bill she was tall she was physically capable she learned very quickly she was incredibly intelligent zentgraf also wanted to join the color guard one of several special units in the corps including the aggie band and ross volunteers that had remained off-limits to female cadets she tried out and the class of 79 told her we didnt think you would do well because youre a girl but you are the best candidate sheridan said but then my class said itwasnt military for a woman to be on color guard zentgraf was denied membership and after repeated attempts to deal with the issue internally her experience ultimately led her to take legal action against the university a 1979 class-action suit argued that texas a&m was violating title ix by permitting sex discrimination in the corps special units from the very start the case was both high-profile and historic when the us department of justice moved to join the suit later that year an associated press report noted it was the first time the federal government had taken action to enforce title ix since the law was passed as pranglin recalls the suit was incredibly divisive and for zentgraf the backlash was overwhelming melanie zentgraf had a hard time pranglin said and whether anyone agrees that she should have filed the lawsuit or not i can tell you for sure that nothing changed until she did