REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- As a National Guard general officer who is also a wife, mother of three daughters and a civilian system safety engineer for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, Maj. Gen. Michelle Rose has lived the words of the late former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno – “… The strength of our Soldiers is our families. That’s what makes us Army Strong.”
The support from her family – including husband Barry and three daughters as well as her parents, five brothers and extended family – has given Rose the strength, determination and confidence to lead in both the professional civilian world and the military.
“For any National Guard Soldier, it’s hard to juggle your civilian work and personal life with your commitment to the Army,” said Rose, who is the first two-star female general to represent the Virginia National Guard.
“I could not have served with the Army if I hadn’t had the support of my husband, daughters and entire family. Particularly as you move up with promotions and more responsibilities, a supportive family is imperative. To be Army strong, you have to have a strong family behind you.”
Rose brings her brand of strength – honed from 33 years of Army service and 17 civilian years with TRADOC – to the Army Materiel Command’s senior command team, where she is the Assistant Deputy Commanding General for National Guard Affairs. Her extensive military career includes serving as a deployed officer during Operation Desert Shield/Storm and Operation Restore Hope; commander in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom; and Director for Logistics and Engineering with the North American Aerospace Defense Command/U.S. Northern Command along with assignments with the National Guard Bureau, Department of the Army G-8 (Resource Management) as part of the National Commission on the Future of the Army and senior transporter in the 29th Infantry Division.
Her assignment as an AMC senior leader takes advantage of her Army and joint experience while giving her the opportunity to utilize her skills in direct support of Army readiness.
“As a career logistician with six years in a joint assignment and a few special projects at the Pentagon, I was at the point where I was asking myself ‘What are the next assignments I want in my career?’” she said. “First, I wanted to get back to the Army. Second, I wanted to get back to where logistics really happens – and that’s at AMC. Being assigned to AMC and having the support of AMC leadership to do this job as a logistician is the ultimate for me.”
In her new assignment, Rose is responsible for ensuring the logistics and sustainment needs of Reserve and National Guard units are considered within the AMC enterprise.
“It’s important that the Army Reserve components support what is being accomplished with respect to materiel readiness solutions across the Army,” Rose said. “I serve as a liaison in ensuring synchronization between active duty Army and the Reserve and National Guard in the areas of sustainment, logistics management and the life cycle management of equipment.
“Even though we have the same mission and the same equipment, there are still differences in how we operate. In this role, I am more of an advocate to help interpret and understand the idiosyncrasies between the active Army and the Reserve Army, the different ways to get to the end state. Especially with equipment modernization, we have to make sure National Guard and Reserve processes are synchronized with the Army to meet the mission.”
With an engineer background, Rose has an extensive knowledge of Army systems, and an understanding of what it takes to operate and sustain those systems.
“Modernization and readiness are the focus,” she said. “We need to look across the active duty and Reserve components at all the different platforms and understand the different states of equipment readiness.”
A 1989 distinguished military graduate from North Carolina State University with an Industrial Engineering degree, Rose served on active duty with the Quartermaster Corps, deploying in support of Operations Restore Hope and Desert Shield/Desert Storm. She left active duty, joined the National Guard in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and worked in the distribution industry for 10 years. As a two-time combat veteran, she was soon promoted into command positions. Later, she began her Army Civilian career with the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, where she studied, planned and developed rail throughput capacities on Department of Defense installations throughout the U.S.
She was then hired as a system safety engineer by TRADOC, where her early years were spent reviewing Army systems and system life cycle management to ensure equipment was developed, manufactured and fielded as safely as possible for the Soldier.
“At TRADOC, my job as a National Guard officer melded with my civilian job,” she said. “I got to develop my expertise in both jobs.”
During the early years of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Rose was instrumental in evaluating for TRADOC a vehicle that U.S. troops needed for protection against improvised explosive devices. Those evaluations, for example, led to the addition of hydraulics to the vehicle’s doors to prevent bodily injury to Soldiers.
Four years later, while commanding the 529th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in Afghanistan, she oversaw a battalion’s worth of those vehicles – the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle).
“I was well aware of the MRAP’s capabilities and safety limitations because of my civilian job,” she said. “So, when a very simple and inexpensive piece of equipment inside the MRAP failed, I knew who to call within the Army for a solution. Within two weeks, all the MRAPs in theater were repaired. That simple piece of equipment – a D ring – works to hold the gunner in place when the vehicle rolls over, keeping the gunner from flying out of the vehicle.”
Rose hit her 20-year mark as an Army officer while in Afghanistan. “I enjoyed the work so much that I hadn’t even paid attention to how long I had served,” she said. “I was sitting at a desk in a tent in Afghanistan and decided I would keep going as long as I could manage with both my family and my civilian job. At that point, the educational and leadership opportunities really took off.
“I never had that General Officer goal. I just took advantage of opportunities and did everything I could to be prepared when the opportunities came along.”
Along the way, she was awarded a Legion of Merit and Bronze Star and has held a variety of National Guard assignments. She is particularly proud of the Guard’s role in building partnerships with 93 nations through its State Partnership Program.
Prior to her AMC assignment, Rose served three years on active duty as the Director of Logistics and Engineering for NORAD/USNORTHCOM at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. While there, her duties included directing support to the DOD response during the national COVID pandemic, assisting the Bahamas during the disastrous hurricane Dorian in 2019 and providing support for Operation Allies Welcome, which involved AMC and TRADOC in providing services to 75,000 Afghans who immigrated to the U.S. in late 2021.
Throughout her career, Rose has been committed to building relationships both on the military and civilian sides. She enjoys mentoring and coaching aspiring Soldiers and Department of Defense Civilians, and is active with Women, Peace and Security through the DoD, which works to advance women causes worldwide.
“From the very first time we recruit a Soldier – male or female – we need to take a holistic look at our Army and what they want to accomplish,” she said. “About mid-career, as both opportunities and responsibilities increase, there has to be a balance. How can we help Soldiers with challenges that come in mid-career so they don’t leave the military? The end game for our Army in regards to Soldier development is diversity in all areas, including race, gender and experience.”
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