Saturday, North Little Rock’s Patricia Anslow became the Arkansas National Guard’s first female general officer.
Anslow achieved the rank of Bbrigadier General in June and, in a ceremony Saturday, received her formal promotion.
“Being a citizen soldier means that you must recognize the unique relationship between all of your families. This means your biological family, your employer family, and of course your guard family,” says Anslow.
The West Point grad’s guard family, including her boss, raved about her service.
“Her expertise, her dedication, and her caring leadership for soldiers, that’s what we need in the Guard right now,” says Arkansas Adjutant General Bill Wofford.
Anslow wasn’t always sure this would be her future.
“When I entered West Point in 1985, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make the military my career. And, I did that active duty for the first three years, and then I transitioned to the National Guard, and it’s been a wonderful blessing to have both a civilian career and a guard career,” she says.
Her parents say the toughest days were during their daughter’s deployment.
“One of my habits was that I used to look up at the moon and think about the fact that she’s looking up at the same moon, but a few hours earlier,” says Bill Anslow.
Now, Anslow looks ahead to her future service as a high ranking officer.
“We see that budget constraints are going to continue to create challenges for our forces, so we’re gonna meet those challenges head on and make sure that our National Guard is ready for whatever our community here in Arkansas needs for us or our nation,” says Anslow.
Brigadier General Anslow also works for the Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the Chief of the Planning and Environmental Division.
Anslow achieved the rank of Bbrigadier General in June and, in a ceremony Saturday, received her formal promotion.
“Being a citizen soldier means that you must recognize the unique relationship between all of your families. This means your biological family, your employer family, and of course your guard family,” says Anslow.
The West Point grad’s guard family, including her boss, raved about her service.
“Her expertise, her dedication, and her caring leadership for soldiers, that’s what we need in the Guard right now,” says Arkansas Adjutant General Bill Wofford.
Anslow wasn’t always sure this would be her future.
“When I entered West Point in 1985, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make the military my career. And, I did that active duty for the first three years, and then I transitioned to the National Guard, and it’s been a wonderful blessing to have both a civilian career and a guard career,” she says.
Her parents say the toughest days were during their daughter’s deployment.
“One of my habits was that I used to look up at the moon and think about the fact that she’s looking up at the same moon, but a few hours earlier,” says Bill Anslow.
Now, Anslow looks ahead to her future service as a high ranking officer.
“We see that budget constraints are going to continue to create challenges for our forces, so we’re gonna meet those challenges head on and make sure that our National Guard is ready for whatever our community here in Arkansas needs for us or our nation,” says Anslow.
Brigadier General Anslow also works for the Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the Chief of the Planning and Environmental Division.
