Female commander in Iraq says attitude key to success

Published Monday, August 14, 2006

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq (AP) - Retracing her path to becoming a brigadier general in Iraq, Rebecca Halstead remembers her first command back in 1981 where, as a freshly minted lieutenant, she was teamed with a sergeant who had served in Vietnam.

It was a rough beginning. After a month at the U.S. Army’s base in Vicenza, Italy, Halstead pulled the sergeant aside and outlined two of the three strikes she thought he held against her:

She was yet another officer for him to train; she was from West Point; and - as the petite Halstead stood on a rock to look the sergeant in the eye - she told him strike three was that she’s short.

"And he just started laughing because I know he thought I was going to say" it’s " ‘because I’m a woman.’ And that probably was what the issue was," Halstead recalled during an interview at her office on this base 50 miles north of Baghdad.

That attitude has helped her become the first West Point woman to rise to the rank of general. And as top officer of the 3rd Corps Support Command, she is the highest-ranking female currently serving in Iraq as a battlefield commander. She has also served in Afghanistan.

Gender? "You can make it an issue if you want to, or you can figure out other ways to skin that cat," said Halstead, 47, from Willseyville, N.Y. "And I’ve always tried to figure out other ways to skin that cat."

Her job is to keep the troops supplied with everything from bullets to water as well as to train Iraqi soldiers to eventually take over their own supply operations.

In this conservative Muslim culture, where many women robe their themselves in black and can’t go unescorted by a male relative, Halstead said she has had no problems working with Iraqi soldiers.

"I did wonder about that when I came over here. But I think they respect the rank. They respect the position," said Halstead.

"I’ve gone through their barracks. I’ve stood in their latrines. I’ve talked to them about discipline and soldiering. And at the end of the day, I kind of usually tap my chest and say, ‘You know, we’re soldiers together, and soldiering is about what’s inside."