When the government repealed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in 2010, Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen married her longtime partner, becoming one of the first openly gay women in the Air Force.
Vorderbruggen was killed on Monday in Afghanistan. She was the highest-ranking officer among the six U.S. troops killed during a suicide attack against her patrol unit.
"She inspired us all I think by just being herself, and being proud to be who she was," her older brother Christopher Vorderbruggen told CBS News.
Family members remember the 36-year-old from Plymouth, Minnesota, as a dedicated member of the military who "loved life."
"Whatever goal she had, she found a way," her father Joseph Vorderbruggen said.
She was also dedicated to her unit.
"She intentionally would go on these patrols with her men because she wanted to show them that she would do what she was asking them to do," her brother Christopher Vordergbruggen told CBS News.
She leaves behind her wife, Heather Lamb, and the couple's young son, Jacob.
Military Partners and Families Coalition, a group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender military families, issued a statement Tuesday, mourning Vorderbruggen's death and praising the legacy she left behind.
It said Vorderbruggen, her wife and their son had been a part of the group "nearly from its start" and took "great pride in being members of the military community."
Vorderbruggen "lived for her family and for her country," the statement read.
Because "don't ask, don't tell" was repealed, the military will support Vorderbruggen's wife and son.
"We can take small comfort in the fact that they will be extended the same rights and protections due any American military family as they move through this incredibly difficult period in their lives," read a tribute message on the group's Facebook page.
Fellow service members paid tribute to Vorderbruggen and her five colleagues in a ceremony on Wednesday.
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Staff Sergeant Louis Bonacasa, 31, Air National Guardsman Joseph Lemm, 45, Staff Sergeant Chester McBride, 30, Staff Sergeant Peter Taub, 30, and Staff Sergeant. Michael A. Cinco, 28, were also killed in the attack near Bagram Air Base.
It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2013.
Additional information from the Associated Press.