RICHMOND, Va. –
Col. Michelle Rose of the Virginia National Guard was promoted to brigadier general Oct. 16, 2018, in Alexandria, Virginia, and will serve as the National Guard Bureau Director of Logistics and Engineering in a traditional Guard status. She most recently served on active duty as the Chief of General Officer Management at National Guard Bureau and will return to her civilian job as Headquarters TRADOC System Safety Engineer at Fort Eustis, Virginia.
“Brig. Gen. Rose has successfully managed a successful full-time civilian career and challenging Guard battalion and brigade command and staff assignments, and her latest promotion recognizes her abilities for assignment to positions of greater responsibility,” Williams said. “She is the latest Virginia National Guard senior leader to be promoted to general officer and serve at the national level, and all of these officers should serve as examples of what can be accomplished through hard work and outstanding duty performance.”
Rose joins Brig. Gen. William L. Zana, Brig. Gen. Marti J. Bissell, and Brig. Gen. Lapthe Flora in being selected for national-level general officer duty assignments in the last year.
Zana began serving Jan. 1, 2018, as the Deputy Commanding General of Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa in a full-time duty status, Bissell began serving July 9, 2018, as the Commander and Senior Military Representative at North Atlantic Treaty Organization Headquarters, Sarajevo, in a full-time duty status, and Flora took charge of the Virginia Army National Guard July 14, 2018, and he also serves as Deputy Commanding General for the U.S. Army Africa Headquarters in Vicenza, Italy, in a traditional Guard status.
As the Director of Logistics and Engineering, Rose will maintain significant relationships with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, FEMA, Defense Logistics Agency and NORTHCOM concerning all things logistics and engineering within the National Guard and will make sure National Guard equities are represented at the strategic level. She will also be responsible for the logistical component of planning and exercise support for Defense Support to Civil Authorities including transportation feasibility reviews, logistical support area planning at the joint level with close ties to both the Army and Air Force chiefs of logistics. She will coordinate with the National Guard Joint Staff to develop logistics and engineering support and sustainment of all contingencies with a focus on developing the logistics requirements for strategic roles and missions of the National Guard.
Rose was commissioned in 1989 as a Regular Army second lieutenant through the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. She earned a Master of Business Administration – Management in 1997 from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, and graduated in 2014 form the U.S. Army War College Distance Education Program with a Master of Strategic Studies.
After commissioning, she served on active duty and completed two combat tours. She served as a transportation platoon leader in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and later as company executive officer in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia while assigned to the 24th Transportation Battalion, 7th Group, based Fort Eustis, Virginia.
She joined the Virginia Army National Guard in 1994 and has held multiple logistical and command assignments through her Guard career. She served as the division transportation officer of the 29th Infantry Division and later in a joint assignment as senior transportation officer with Joint Task Force Civil Support, U.S. Joint Forces Command, at Fort Monroe, Virginia.
In 2008, Rose commanded the 529th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, which included a deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom at Shindand, Afghanistan, as the first U.S. logistics unit in Regional Command West. She was the first female officer in the Virginia National Guard to command a battalion in a combat zone. After battalion command, she served on the Virginia National Guard joint staff as the state resource manager before taking command of the Virginia Beach-based 329th Regional Support Group from May 2012 to October 2015.
Her awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal with one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service Medal.
View photos from the promotion ceremony on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiefngb/sets/72157674782611418