<div><p>The female descendant of a long line of US military officers was promoted to four star general Thursday, the first woman ever to reach the top rung of the US military.</p><p>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.</p><p>"When people ask me, Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, say nothing about a four-star, I say not in my wildest dreams," she said.</p><p>"There is no one more surprised than I, except, of course, my husband.</p><p>And you know what they say, behind every successful woman there's an astonished man."</p><p>Her husband, Craig Brotchie, a retired air force officer, and General George Casey, the army chief of staff, pinned the stars on her shoulders.</p><p>"Although it's taken a long time, probably longer than it should have, what's happening here today is something our entire Army can celebrate and take pride in,' Casey said.</p><p>Before her promotion, Dunwoody was one of only two female three-star generals in the army and six in the military as a whole.</p><p>In breaking the brass ceiling, she became one of only 21 full generals in the army. About 14 percent of the army's active 543,000-strong force are now women.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Military women in audience shouted "Hooah" as Dunwoody spoke with emotion about her military family and career.</p><p>US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Dunwoody's blood runs "olive drab."</p><p>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.</p><p>"A Dunwoody has fought in every American war since the Revolution," Casey said.</p><p>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.</p><p>"The number one job at 1975 that the officers and enlisted men and women of the Army thought was appropriate for women was cook," he said.</p><p>"And that, by 98 percent of the men and 97 percent of the women."</p><p>Dunwoody went on to become a parachute officer for the 82nd Airborne Division during the 1990-91 first Gulf War.</p><p>She rose through the army as a logistician.</p><p>The army still bars women from serving in combat infantry units.</p><p>Asked whether that should change, Dunwoody told reporters she had no personal views on it.</p><p>But she said "it's been my experience in my 33 years in the military that the doors have continued to open and the opportunities have continued to expand.</p><p>"And so I think, as time deems it necessary, that that review will be revisited."</p><p>She said the generation of women who entered the military when she did in the mid-1970s "was a generation of firsts."</p><p>"And so I think what we see now is that generation is now reaching the senior ranks of our Army. The last brigadier general officer list had five female general officers on it.</p><p>"So the bench is deep, and the opportunities are tremendous," she said.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=37022566&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2008  <a href="http://www.afp.com/english/links/?pid=copyright">AFP American Edition</a></div></div>