Lady / Killer

They call it breaking the brass ceiling. Ann E. Dunwoody, after 33 years in the Army, ascended to a peak never before reached by a woman in the U.S. military: four-star general. Gays, women, minorities...you are all welcome and equal in our war machine!

Dunwoody received her Army commission after graduating from the State University of New York in 1975. Her first assignment was to Fort Sill, as supply platoon leader in 1976, and she remained at Sill in various positions until she was sent to quartermaster officer school in 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, 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.

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% of the active-duty Army and are allowed to 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 over the past two decades.

At an emotional promotion ceremony, Dunwoody looked back on her years in uniform and said it was a credit to the Army — and a great surprise to her — that she would make history in a male-dominated military.

"Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding," she told a standing-room-only auditorium crowd. "Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family. It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession. So when asked, `Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?' I say, `Not in my wildest dreams'."

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.' "

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. Her husband, Craig Brotchie, served for 26 years in the Air Force.

At Fort Belvoir, Va., Dunwoody was being sworn in as commander of the Army Materiel Command, responsible for equipping, outfitting and arming all soldiers. Just five months ago, she became the first female deputy commander there.

Congrats, General! You fill the uniform handsomely.