By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – Sheryl Gordon, a member of the Alabama National Guard for nearly 30 years, has been selected for promotion to become its first female general.
Gordon, who retired recently as an assistant principal at Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, took command Sunday of the 62nd Troop Command in Montgomery, where she started her Guard career.
The unit at Fort Taylor Hardin is now the state's largest with about 5,000 troops.
In taking command, the paperwork process began for her to officially rise to the rank of one-star general.
"We're a subset of American society," said Maj. Gen. A.C. Blalock, the Guard's adjutant general. "Hopefully we have the systems and mechanisms to let every soldier and airman in the Guard reach their potential if they do all the things required."
Gordon began in the enlisted ranks before attending the Alabama Military Academy, which commissioned her as a second lieutenant in 1981. Her first assignment was handling administrative duties at Fort Taylor Hardin.
"When I first started in the '80s, they really didn't know what to do with female officers but to make them personnel officers," she said.
She said the role of women in the military has evolved in recent decades.
"Just the fact that I am here, it's obvious it has changed," she said.
Gordon's father, who died n 1996, retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Guard, and her brother is a one-star general.
Gordon and her husband, a retired Guard member, live on Lake Martin.