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Graduate to Lead Largest Veterans Day Event

11/01/2013 

Retired Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody ’75, a SUNY Cortland graduate and the military’s first female four-star general, will serve as grand marshal for the 2013 America’s Parade, the largest Veterans Day celebration in the nation.

The event, which takes place Monday, Nov. 11, in New York City, is expected to draw a crowd of more than 600,000. It begins at 11:15 a.m. and will be broadcast on FOX Television’s MyNetwork TV in addition to FOX5 locally in New York City.

This year’s parade spotlights the contributions of women in the military and celebrates the U.S. Army as its featured service branch. Dunwoody will serve as one of three parade grand marshals, along with Anthony Principi, the former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff.

Dunwoody, a fourth generation service member, studied physical education at SUNY Cortland and excelled in tennis and gymnastics during a time when women were not admitted to West Point. She’s best known for being the first female promoted to the rank of four-star general in 2008, although her 37 decorated years of service included many other accomplishments.

For the last four years of her career, before she retired in 2012, Dunwoody ran the largest global logistics command in the Army. It encompassed more than 69,000 workers scattered across the world, a budget of $60 billion and the Army’s global supply chain supporting Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dunwoody is credited with leading a transformation of the Army’s logistics organizations and was tabbed by Odierno, her fellow grand marshal, as “quite simply the best logistician the Army has ever had.”

In 1992, she became the first woman to command a battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division. She also was the first female general at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the first woman to lead the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, Va.

Dunwoody was deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Storm as a division parachute officer for the 407th Supply and Transportation Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. She served as the 1st Corps Support Command Commander in the deployment of the Logistics Task Force in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Among her many awards, Dunwoody has been recognized by France with its National Order of Merit, by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association with its lifetime Achievement Award and by the NCAA with its highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, in 2011.

SUNY Cortland also has recognized her with the College’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor for its graduates, and induction in the C-Club Hall of Fame.

Following her undergraduate days, Dunwoody was directly commissioned into the Women’s Army Corps and later received a Master of Science in Logistics Management from the Florida Institute of Technology as well as a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Dunwoody currently serves as president of First 2 Four, LLC, a leadership and strategic advisory company. She is married to retired Air Force Col. Craig Brotchie.

America’s Parade, formerly known as New York City’s Veterans Day Parade, is organized by the United War Veterans Council. For more information, visit americasparade.org.


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