In December of 1998, Lt. Kendra Williams made history when she took off from the USS Enterprise and joined in a bombing raid over Iraq. She became the first woman to ever pilot a U.S. military aircraft on a bombing run.

The air strikes had been ordered by President Bill Clinton when Saddam Hussein refused to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors. A few weeks later, then Secretary of Defense William Cohen traveled to the USS Enterprise along with USO entertainers to bring some holiday cheer to the ship's crew. I was along as a reporter for People magazine and wanted to talk with Williams, but Navy public affairs officers said Williams and the other female pilots did not wish to be interviewed.

Once a helicopter delivered Cohen, his aides and the traveling press to the Enterprise, I walked away from the entourage and found a helpful lieutenant in the same squadron as Williams. He pointed her out to me when everyone gathered on the deck to hear Carole King sing. But the Navy public affairs officers were right. When I introduced myself to Williams and Lt. Kerry Kuykendall, standing next to her, they politely said they preferred not to talk about themselves.

I thought of my school-age sons at home and responded politely that I wanted my sons to know that girls can grow up to fly bombers. I told them why it was important not just that little girls know about them as role models, but boys too.

Williams and Kuykendall got it. They agreed to talk with me. They said they didn't want gender to define their success and achievements. They didn't want to be treated differently from the men in their squadron. "I'm just one of the gang," Williams said in the interview for People. Kuykendall, who had roomed with Williams at Annapolis, said they considered their male comrades to be brothers. "We look out for each other," she told me.

Women making history like Williams and Kuykendall have always faced an uncomfortable and wobbly balance. It's not unlike the conundrum Hillary Clinton continues to confront. How can you celebrate the importance of breaking gender barriers but show it wasn't "just" because of your gender? How can you still be "one of the gang?" Eight years after her first run for president, Clinton and her campaign made the strategic choice to highlight that her gender really is a big deal. The Democrats' convention in Philadelphia touted Clinton making gender history, visualized by the video of the past presidents that shattered to reveal Hillary, the woman who finally broke that historic glass ceiling. Speaker after speaker talked about the message of her historic nomination to the dreams of little girls.

As Vice President Joe Biden said in his address: "We all understand what it will mean for our daughters and granddaughters when Hillary Clinton walks into the Oval Office."