Thirty years ago, Jose T. Carranza brought his children across the border from their native Mexico into the United States looking for a better life.
They included Maria, 9, and her older brother, Juan, and younger sister, Cristina. Maria recalls being a scared little girl in a strange land who was unable to speak English.
Fast forward to today. Capt. Maria Salih has served nine years in the Army and is preparing to assume her first command as the new commander of Headquarters & Headquarters Company, Aviation and Missile Command.
Salih will succeed Capt. Jeremy Myles as the HHC AMCOM commander in a ceremony May 31 at 10 a.m. at Bob Jones Auditorium.
“I feel excited. It’s another challenge and change,” she said. “I am confident. I’m a little bit nervous. I’m eager to learn new jobs, new opportunities. I’m excited to meet new people and be able to help them in whatever tasks or missions.”
Salih enlisted in April 2015. She was a specialist promotable when she decided to apply for officer candidate school in 2017, got selected, attended OCS at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) in Georgia and received her commission in 2018. She initially branched as an air defense officer and then transferred to adjutant general.
“It (the Army) has really meant opportunities. It gave me opportunities, stability,” Salih said.
She was born in Guerrero, Mexico, and grew up in Dallas after migrating to the U.S. She said her father “basically risked his residency in the United States, crossing three of his kids to the United States.” The youngest child, Jose T. Jr., was born in the States.
“I became a resident first because my father applied for a green card for all of us,” she said of obtaining citizenship. “I became a U.S. citizen in 2005.”
Salih earned an associate degree in general science in 2010 from Mountain View Community College in Dallas. She graduated from the University of Phoenix in 2013 with a bachelor’s in business management. She received her master’s in higher education in 2021 from the University of Louisville.
In 2015 she joined the Army after working 10 years as a medical assistant at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
“I was too comfortable in that (medical assistant) job already and I needed something different. I needed a challenge. I needed something different besides what I was doing and that’s what the Army gave me,” she said. “Plus, it was a way to step out of my comfort zone.
“I wanted to make my parents proud because they sacrificed so much. Financially I was able to help them more (by joining the Army).”
The English language remained a challenge for her. Sometimes there are still things she does not understand, she said. “Being able to translate in my head to know what people are talking about. For me I’m a person that’s very observant. So, the more I look at people and see their daily routine, the more I can grasp what they’re saying and I’m more of a visual person,” she said. “If I’m reading something, I have to read it two or three times before I understand it. So, I have to take my time to read. I’m a very visual person.”
Salih, 39, arrived at Redstone in March 2022 from Denton, Texas, where she was a Cavazos intern and an assistant to the professor of military science at the University of North Texas ROTC. Her current Redstone assignment is executive officer to the AMCOM chief of staff.
Her father died June 3, 2020, in Dallas, while she was out in the field at Fort Bliss. “That was the hardest moment,” she said, with teary eyes.
Now, thanks to the Army, she can financially help take care of her mother, Arcadia Carranza of Dallas.
“It (the Army) has helped me to grow personally and professionally. And it’s helped me to help my mother now that my father is no longer with us,” she said. “The military basically gave me the opportunity to gain more knowledge, gain more skills. Most importantly it helped me be able to provide for my parents. I’m grateful for all the sacrifices they made for me. It gave me that drive to be able to help others.”
She and her husband of 10 years, Sgt. 1st. Class D
ilshad Salih, of the 2nd Medical Recruiting Battalion, have a son, Noah, 2.
The outgoing commander, Myles, led the unit since October 2022. HHC MICOM has 498 Soldiers, including 31 in Anniston. Myles, a Montgomery native, is leaving for Fort Novosel, the former Fort Rucker, where he will become deputy S3 (operations) officer with 164th Theater Airfield Support Group. He reports there June 14. Myles and his wife, Jerrika, have a son, Jacob, 7, and a daughter, Jade, 5.
“This job (at HHC AMCOM) has singlehandedly been the best job I’ve had since I’ve been in the military,” Myles said. “So, not only did it give me a sense of purpose for my military career, it also gave me a sense of purpose and direction for my family.”
Social Sharing