FORT HOOD, Texas — Cpt. Anna Jones is an officer in the 1st Cavalry Division’s 3rd Armored Brigade, but she just started out as a humble girl from Michigan with a love for sports.
”I was an avid tennis player and an avid baseball player,” Cpt. Jones said.
“It was very serious at one time — very serious.”
Like many people in 2001, the 9/11 attacks forever changed the life of a young Cpt. Jones.
”That’s what really drove me to be interested in how the world works and how governments work,” Cpt. Jones said.
“I was a political science and Arabic major at Notre Dame to really help myself understand what was happening in the world around me.”
She spent a short time in the corporate world, but always heard the call to serve, and now does so as a female commander in a brigade filled with tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles — a role that was only been available to women for a handful of years.
”It’s very rewarding to see where we started when it was all brand new — everyone was really uncertain on how it was going to go — to now,” Cpt. Jones said.
“Watching all these young troopers, men and women, thrive and work alongside each other. Blood, sweat, and tears right next to each other.”
Those who know her best say it’s that diverse group of troopers that make her the high-quality leader she has become.
”When she was in 69 and I was in 112, that’s something that always something that always stuck out to me,” said Cpt. Mark Stephenson, Fellow Captain in the 3rd Armored Brigade.
“Just her going over the norm to make sure her soldiers are taken care of.”
The fact that she is a female leader in a combat role isn’t lost on her, and she has a message for other women who may have doubts about their own capabilities.
”You are stronger than you think you are, and you can do it,” Cpt. Jones said.
“Thow your hat in the ring and get in there. It will be hard work just like anything that is worth doing is, but you can do it.”
