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It's her first day back on-base since her son started at the Academy -- since Roy took his oath and joined the Robotech Expeditionary Force -- and Lisa has felt oddly jittery all day. Now, when she sees her son, looking all grown up in his new uniform, approaching with a small formation of his classmates, it coalesces.
In unison, the young men and women salute her. And she remembers --
-- her own first few days at a different Robotech Academy. Seeing her father, coming down the passageway with two other senior officers. She'd snapped to attention, given him her best salute. He'd returned it, and kept walking.
Now, she returns her son's salute.
And then the group of cadets have passed. As she did that day, decades before, when she was just a cadet and her father was Admiral Hayes, Lisa turns and looks back. But her son is still moving forward.
As it should be, she knows, but she can't help wondering; why am I always the one looking back?