SANDSTON, Va. –
Col. Michelle Rose of the Virginia National Guard has been selected to serve as Chief of General Officer Management at National Guard Bureau, according to an announcement made March 30, 2017, by Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia. The assignment is a two-year active duty tour at National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Virginia.
“Col. Michelle Rose served an active duty short tour with NGB as a strategic planner with the National Commission on the Future of the Army, and her outstanding duty performance put her on the radar with Guard leaders at the national level,” Williams said. “Her selection should set an example for senior officers and noncommissioned officers throughout the Virginia National Guard that there are opportunities for strong performers to be of service at the national level. She has been a marvelous leader in the Virginia Guard both in peacetime and in combat, and I know she will well represent the commonwealth during her service at NGB.”
As the Chief of General Officer Management, Rose will be responsible to the Chief of National Guard Bureau for the development and implementation of policies and procedures for the overall management of National Guard general officer programs and will also be responsible for the joint officer qualifications management for all the National Guard. She currently serves as the J5, Director of Strategic Plans, at Joint Force Headquarters – Virginia, in a traditional Guard status and works full time as a Department of the Army civilian as a system safety engineer for Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis, Virginia.
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.