"Sherian Grace Cadoria"(January 26,1940)

Other women have become generals in the military through the nursing corps,but Sherian was the first to achieve that rank through the military police,a traditionally male route.This achievement was a struggle and a challenge throughout her twenty-nine years in the United States Army.To other women aspiring to a military career grace,Sherian stated in Brian Lanker's ,I Dream a World:Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America,"A woman today has to do more than her male counterpart.Come in knowing that you're going to have to give two hundred percent effort to get one hundred percent credit.And most of the time you will not get one hundred percent credit."In 1985 she was not the only one who was proud when her mother,Berniece Cadoria,and General Robert Elton pinned her new rank of brigadier general on her uniform.According to the editors in African American voices of Triumph:Perseverance,her mother commented,when first told of Sherian's promotion,"We're going to be a general!"Her mother encouraged her throughout her career,especially when she came back from almost three years in Vietnam,in 1969,intending to leave the Army Corps had taken its toll,but her mother reminded her of responsibility to all African-Americans.Sherian had just received the rank of major.Born in Marksville Louisiana,Sherian learned responsibilty and integrity early in life.As a girl she lugged hundred-pound bags of cotton.She walked five miles to school and back with her brother and sister instead of taking the bus,because blacks did not do well on the white society's public transportation.Once her mother made the three of them walk five miles back to return the penny too much that they were given in change at a store.Sherian would never for get that lesson.She told Brian Lanker,in I Dream a World,"I didn't have problems in the military with discipline because my mom really was a first sergeant."Her mother was also someone with character and strong moral values.This training at home was what allowed Sherian,during her junior year at Southern University in Baton Rouge,Louisiana to withstand the four-week WAC training program at Fort-Mclellan,Alabama;to serve later in Vietnam;and to hold key assignments with the Joint Chiefs of staff was dissolved in 1978,Sherian attended the Army's Command and General Staff College- - she was the first black woman to do so- - and the University of Oklahoma.She received a B.S. IN Business education and an M.A. in human relations.These degrees,along with advance training at the Army's War College- - where she was again the first black woman to attend and the National Defense University,helped her excel as an executive officer.Her success required more than home-training and education.According to the editors of Black Women in America:Sherian fought a personal battle that would eventually take her to the top."David Dent,in an article saluting black women soldiers for Essence,quoted Sherian as saying,"When I started in the Army in 1961,there were jobs a black,buy unwritten code,could not do.I can never forget that the coveted position of Platoon Leader in the Women's Officers Training Detachment  denied me because a black could not carry out all the duties the job entailed.Specifically,in Anniston,Alabama,a black could take the troops off the installation because of Jim Crow laws."During 1962 and 1963,Sherian had to endure Ku Klux Klan members,often in robes and hoods,standing at the gates of Fort McClellan.In 1963,the year she made first lieutenant and became a platoon officer,she was refused food,even at the back door,of a restaurant.Four years later,Sherian was told she could not withstand the travel or carry the heavy luggage required for a protocol job in Vietnam.She told her commanding officer,according to Merrill McLoughlin in U.S. News &World Report,"Nobody said couldn't carry those hundred-pounds bags of cotton when i was a just a little child."She was determined to use her training."Practically everywhere I go,"stated Sherian in I Dream a World,"I have more than one job...Practically every job that I've gone into was a first...I've gotten more pressure from being female in a man's world than from being black.I was always a role model.I had responsibility not just for black women but for black men, too."Sherian firsts,other than those mentioned above,included being the first woman to command a male battalion and,in 1985 in Washington,D.C.,being the first black woman director of manpower and personnel for the Joint Chiefs of staff.In the latter position she was responsible for the placement of personnel in all branches of the military and the reserve components.Her last assignment,in 1987 was as Deputy Commanding General and Director for Mobilization and Operations for the United States Total Army Personnel Command in Alexandria,Virginia.David Dent wrote in Essence,"Simply put,if a world war were to erupt,Sherian would be responsible for providing replacements to the overseas commanders on the battlefields."She earned the Legion of Merit,Three Bronze Stars,two Meritorious service Medals,the Air Medal,and four Army Commendation Medals.After she retired from the military in 1990,she started her own business,