TopRank: Ann
E. Dunwoody
First
Female Four-Star General 
By
Roy Asfar,
Special to Veterans Advantage
 This
November of firsts is not limited to the presidential election.
Our military has its own historic event to report. Ann E.
Dunwoody (right) ascended last week from humble beginnings
33 years ago at Fort Sill, Okla., to the never-before achieved
elite level of four-star general.
At an emotional promotion ceremony, Dunwoody added a fourth
star and, looking back on her years in uniform, said it was
a credit to the Army that she was given a chance to rise
through the ranks in a male-dominated military.
“I never grew up in an environment where I even heard of the words ‘glass
ceiling,’" she said. “You could always be anything you wanted
to be if you worked hard, and so I never felt constrained. I never felt like
there were limitations on what I could do,” she added.
"There is no one more surprised than I — except, of course, my husband.
You know what they say, 'Behind every successful woman there is an astonished
man.'" Call it an “interservice marriage,” too.
Her husband, Craig Brotchie, served for 26 years in the Air
Force.
At Fort Belvoir, Va. — her birthplace — Dunwoody was sworn in as
commander of the Army Materiel Command, responsible for equipping, outfitting
and arming all soldiers, a promotion from her deputy commander’s
role there. The position stands as a key position in the
multifront war on terror.
There are 21 female general officers
in the Army — all but four at the
one-star rank of brigadier. It was not until 1970 that the
Army had its first one-star: Anna Mae Hays, chief of the
Army Nurse Corps.
Women now make up about 14 percent of the active-duty Army
and serve in a wide variety of assignments. They are still
excluded from units designed primarily to engage in direct
combat, such as infantry and tank units, but their opportunities
have expanded enormously over the past two decades.
Background
In an Associated Press interview after the ceremony, Gen.
George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, said that if there
is one thing that distinguishes Dunwoody, it is her lifetime
commitment to excelling in uniform.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody smiles during
her promotion to General, where she was pinned
by Chief of Staff of the Army General George
W. Casey, left, and her husband Craig Brotchie
during her ceremony at the Pentagon Nov. 14,
2008. Dunwoody made history as the nations
first 4 star female officer. DoD photo by U.S.
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess
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"If you talk to leaders around the Army and say, `What
do you think about Ann Dunwoody?' almost unanimously you
get: `She's a soldier,'" Casey said, adding that he
admires the fact that, "she's a soldier first."
Dunwoody hails from a family of
military men dating back to the 1800s. Her father, 89-year-old
Hal Dunwoody — a
decorated veteran of World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam — was
in the audience, along with the service chiefs of the Army,
Navy, Air Force and Marines, plus the Joint Chiefs chairman,
Adm. Mike Mullen. He received Purple Heart medals for wounds
suffered in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He wears the
Army’s Distinguished Service Cross for valor. The general’s
father graduated from the academy in 1943, following in the
steps of his father, who graduated in 1905. Dunwoody’s
great-grandfather graduated from West Point in 1866.
“Now you understand why people think I have olive-drab
blood,” Dunwoody joked.
Dunwoody received her Army commission after graduating from
the State University of New York in 1975.
Her first assignment was to Fort Sill, as a supply platoon
leader in June 1976, and she remained at Sill in various
positions until she was sent to quartermaster officer school
at Fort Lee, Va., in July 1980.
She later served in Germany and Saudi Arabia.
After graduating from the Command and General Staff College
in 1987, she was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., where she
became the 82nd Airborne Division's first female battalion
commander.
She has numerous decorations, including the Distinguished
Service Medal and Defense Superior Service Medal.
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