The United States Army Reserve has announced that Maj. Gen. Jody J. Daniels has been confirmed by the Senate to serve in the dual role of Chief of the Army Reserve and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Reserve Command.
This appointment marks the first time in the Army Reserve’s 112-year history that a female Soldier has taken command. General Daniels previously served as the Commanding General of the 88th Readiness Division headquartered out of Fort Snelling, Minnesota. She has also served as the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army Forces Command among a long list of other billets.
“She’s a terrific officer. Jody is smart, experienced, approachable and is a gifted leader. Really happy to see her break another glass ceiling as the Chief of the Army Reserve. She’ll be fantastic.”
-Mark Quantock, retired two-star General and former top intelligence officer for Central Command
Daniels has deployed twice during his 36-year career, including a Civil Affairs deployment to Kosovo and another to Iraq, where she served as the Director for Intelligence for the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq.
The U.S. Army Reserve boasts the highest ratio of female service members of any components of the American Armed Forces, with female Soldiers accounting for nearly twenty percent of the Army Reserve’s total strength.
General Daniels describes herself as an “Army brat” that cites her father as a mentor that helped her achieve her own aspirations of Army service. Her father retired from the Army Corps of Engineers as a lieutenant colonel and had previously deployed to Vietnam.
“He was taking everything in and assimilating and synthesizing it,” Daniels says of her father. “And then thinking about how he should respond. And I hope that I’ve taken on some of that.”
Daniels has served in both active and reserve components over her lengthy career, and even while serving in the reserves, her full time occupation kept her within the defense sphere. For a time, Daniels directed advanced programs for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories where her work largely focused on artificial intelligence. She also served on the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) Information Science and Technology (ISAT) Review Board.
The Change of Command ceremony wherein current Army Reserve commander Lt. Gen. Charles D. Luckey will hand control of the Reserve command’s more than 200,000 Soldiers and Civilian employees is set to take place on July 28.
