Rhetoric, technology, and the military: The death of a 'TopGun

This dissertation analyzes the controversy surrounding the October 1994 death of US Navy Lieutenant Kara S. Hultgreen, who died during a training exercise while attempting to land her F-14 fighter jet on the deck of an aircraft carrier. The Hultgreen case represents the ongoing struggle of women in the military for equality, which is linked more broadly to "first-class" citizenship for all women. Equal opportunity was critical in affecting both the rhetorical situation that faced Navy officials at the time of Hultgreen's crash and in affecting how people reacted to Hultgreen's death.;Using rhetorical analysis of media accounts and of the Navy Judge Advocate General report into the Hultgreen crash, this dissertation supports Berkenkotter and Huckin's (1995) contention that "knowledge production is carried out and codified largely through generic forms of writing" (1). Employing genre theory, the concept of technological agency, and discourse analysis, this dissertation shows how the Hultgreen Judge Advocate General report reflects the combat aviation community's understanding of the close interaction of humans with technologies.;Also, the findings add to Roxanne Mountford's (2001) concept of "rhetorical space" by showing how the Navy created a linguistic space for Lieutenant Hultgreen and, by extension, for women in combat aviation. By emphasizing the masculinity of postmodern warfare---technical proficiency---the Navy created a rhetorical space for her as a cyborg soldier whose gender was irrelevant to her performance in the cockpit. The analysis also shows that when a woman soldier leaves the physical space and severs her connection to technology, gender again becomes relevant, and the rhetorical space closes. Because the relationship between report structure and inquiry is crucial, affecting "substance and purpose and encourages particular actions" (Rude 200), suggestions are made for enhancing the format and style of the Judge Advocate General report genre.