I'm sure you have no ill intent, but Heather Wilson, the Secretary of the Air Force who made that statement, is female. It's interesting that it is so natural to assume that someone whose job it is to be "lethal" would be a male, but in this day and age, especially in the air force, that's not the case. Not really relevant, but I have some connections to the Air Force and people seem generally happy that she is the Secretary of the Air Force (the civilian leadership of the Air Force) because she was an Air Force officer, academy grad, seems smart, and she has political experience.