General Tapped to Become First Female Four-Star

[thedrifter]

General Tapped to Become First Female Four-Star
June 23, 2008
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - For the first time in American history a woman has been chosen for promotion to four-star general.

The Pentagon announced Monday that President Bush nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to head the Army Materiel Command, responsible for equipping, outfitting and arming soldiers throughout the Army.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman to attain the rank of a full general. By law, the Army is limited to 11 active-duty four-stars, including the Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey.

Women haven't reached four-star rank because by law they are excluded from serving in combat roles, which historically have been the path to the highest-ranking positions. That exclusion still applies, but with Dunwoody the Army has chosen to cast aside its customary limitations on promotion.

Dunwoody is one of only two female three-stars in the Army; the other is Lt. Gen. Kathleen Gainey, director of logistics on the Joint Staff.

"Her 33 years of service, highlighted by extraordinary leadership and devotion to duty, make her exceptionally qualified for this senior position," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a statement.

Dunwoody currently is deputy commander of Army Materiel Command. Among her earlier assignments, she was commander of Army Combined Arms Support Command and the Army deputy chief of staff for logistics.

Dunwoody is a native of New York; she received her Army commission after graduating from the State University of New York in 1975.

"I am very honored but also very humbled today with this announcement," Dunwoody said. "I grew up in a family that didn't know what glass ceilings were. This nomination only reaffirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career - that the doors continue to open for men and women in uniform."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

President nominates woman for four-star general position
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, June 25, 2008



ARLINGTON, Va. — The Army announced Monday that President Bush has nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody as the first female four-star general in U.S. history.

If confirmed by Congress, Dunwoody, who now serves as deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., would also become commanding general of Material Command, according to the Army.

Approximately 5 percent of general officers in the Army are women, which includes mobilized Army Reserve and Army National Guard general officers, according to Army records.

Federal law dictates the maximum number of officers of each rank the military services are allowed to have on duty at any given time.

Today’s Army is allotted 11 active-duty generals, including Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey.

None of the U.S. armed services has ever had a four-star femaleofficer although all have had three-star female leaders, spokesmen for those services confirmed to Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.

The military currently has 57 female generals and admirals, five of whom have three stars.

Dunwoody has long been seen as the most likely female candidate to achieve a fourth star.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma L. Vaught, who oversees the women’s memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, said Dunwoody had served in a series of high-profile jobs within the Army and the Pentagon that made her a leading candidate.

Vaught noted that Dunwoody’s career field also made her a front-runner. Along with the medical corps, the logistics field has among the highest numbers of female officers in the Army.

"This is a very significant event," Vaught said.

One reason for the dearth of women at the very top is the legal exclusion of females from combat positions, which also eliminates them from leadership of many of the services’ top commands.

The combat exclusion leaves the highest-ranking women generals to serve — or have served — exclusively in combat support positions such as intelligence, or combat service support, such as logistics.

And logistics is Dunwoody’s specialty: When she took her current, No. 2 spot at Material Command from retiring Lt. Gen. William E. Mortensen on June 17, she was the first woman ever to hold that job, as well.

Dunwoody came to that post from the Army’s Pentagon headquarters, where she was deputy chief of staff of the Army’s G-4, or logistics directorate.

Previously, she had commanded the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command and Fort Lee, Va. and the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. She has also commanded the 407th Supply and Transportation Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) Support Command, Fort Drum, N.Y.; and the 1st Corps Support Command (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.

The current Material Command commander, Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin, plans to retire, Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb told Stripes.

Following protocol, Dunwoody is declining additional media requests for interview until the Senate has acted on her nomination, Edgecomb told Stripes. That hearing has not been scheduled.

But in Monday’s Army announcement, Dunwoody said she was "very honored but also very humbled" by the announcement.

The nomination, she said, "only reaffirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career ... that the doors continue to open for men and women in uniform."

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

Ellie