Major Sarlee Rathji was a Terran Confederation officer who fought in the McAuliffe Ambush. As a Major she served as a flight instructor in the Terran Confederation Space Naval Academy on Hilthros. She tutored the 201st Class with simulators with launch, recovery, and basic flight drills. She insisted on the pilots developing an unconscious skill on determining the cockpit readings in order to make awareness of their surroundings second nature. During instrumentation instruction the discussion often drifted to issues like strategy and tactics.