first female four-star general
After 33 years in the Army, Ann E. Dunwoody ascended to the rank of four-star general, a first for U.S. military.
Dunwoody received her Army commission after graduation from the State University of New York in 1975. Her first assignment was to Fort Sill, as supply platoon leader. She was sent to quartermaster officer school at Fort Lee, Va. In 1980.
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.
There are 21 female general officers in the Army, and all but four at the rank of one-star brigadier. The first one-star general of the Army was Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps, in 1970.