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US Army promotes first woman to four star general -PHOTO

US Army promotes first woman to four star general -<font color=red>PHOTO</font>

15 November 2008 08:10 (UTC +04:00)

Washington â€” APA. The female descendant of a long line of US military officers was promoted to four star general, the first woman ever to reach the top rung of the US military, APA reports quoting AFP.
Ann Dunwoody accepted the promotion and command of the army’s materiel command with humor and humility at a Pentagon ceremony so packed with well wishers that three star generals were standing in the aisles.
Her husband, Craig Brotchie, a retired air force officer, and General George Casey, the army chief of staff, pinned the stars on her shoulders.
Dunwoody said many of her mentors and role models were men, including her 89-year-old father, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam who was in the audience.
Also at the ceremony was General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, the heads of the military services, and two former army chiefs of staff.
Military women in audience shouted "Hooah" as Dunwoody spoke with emotion about her military family and career.
Her father, grandfather and great grandfather were West Point graduates. A sister was an army helicopter pilot, and a niece piloted A-10 attack aircraft in Afghanistan.
"A Dunwoody has fought in every American war since the Revolution," Casey said.
He noted that around the time Dunwoody entered the army after college in 1975, the army conducted a survey of attitudes about appropriate jobs for women in the military.
Dunwoody went on to become a parachute officer for the 82nd Airborne Division during the 1990-91 first Gulf War.