May 27, 2007 By Patty Yauger 9 min read

ANNVILLE – Outside the office window, helicopters and aircraft of various sizes can either be heard or seen while across the landscape soldiers jog along the roadside. Inside the office, civilian personnel handle the busy telephone lines while uniformed soldiers deliver an assortment of equipment and supplies throughout the complex.

“It is always busy around here,” said Maj. Gen. Jessica L. Wright, Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania Air and Army National Guard, as the daily activities take place outside the door of her Fort Indiantown Gap office.

She smiles when asked about her daily schedule that normally begins at 5:30 a.m. and can last well into the evening on some days.

On this particular day there are a few meetings before she welcomes two dozen or so employers who are on the military installation to get an up close and personal view of the training their soldier/employees receive; and then later in the day, she will host a dinner for the guests at her lakeside home on the base.

“(Executive secretary) Beth (Shuttlesworth) keeps me on task,” she said, pulling a wallet-size card from her uniform pocket that outlines the day’s schedule. “Without Beth, I would be a failure.”

As adjutant general, Wright not only oversees the command and supervision of the soldiers and airmen of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, she is also responsible for the six state-owned veterans’ homes, Scotland School for Veterans’ Children and programs for Pennsylvania’s 1.3 million veterans.

“Every day is different,” she said.

Wright admits that her life’s path was not one she had considered when growing up in Monessen, Westmoreland County.

Her father, a business owner, and mother, a nurse, met while on a blind date. When they later decided to marry, the couple made the coal-mining town their residence.

“Growing up in a small town, you get to know everybody and feel at home,” she said of the community.

Family circumstances later required the family to move to Bridgeville and then to Bethel Park, where she graduated from high school.

Before she received her high school diploma, her father had imparted his thoughts about her future, but it was not to be.

“My dad wanted me to be a nurse just like my mom, but nursing just wasn’t for me at all, so I changed my major to social work and psychology,” she said.

The Alderson-Broaddus degree, however, did not increase the number of job opportunities when she returned home.

“I took a waitressing job at the South Hills Country Club, but my dad thought I should get a professional job and not one as a waitress,” said Wright.

A family acquaintance suggested the National Guard as an opportunity for her as she sought full-time employment, but to her it was a stopgap effort that would only last until she fulfilled her enlistment.

“I really thought it was only going to be a try this out thing; see if you like it kind of thing,” she said. “But I’m still here, 32 years later.

“It turned into a great career that has provided a lot of opportunities that I took advantage of when they were presented to me.”

She credits her parents for much of her success, but it was her mother that she looked to as a role model.

“Through my career there have been people that have helped and supported me, but it has always been my mother and my dad that were there for me,” she said.

While Wright was in high school, her mother returned to the classroom to obtain her bachelor of arts degree and then shortly thereafter, a master’s degree equivalency.

“She showed me that you can juggle a number of balls at the same time,” said Wright. “She was already juggling three kids, a job and school. She showed me that you are never too busy, that you can always do one more thing if you really wanted to.”

After attending basic and advanced training, along with Officer Candidate School at Fort McClelland, Wright was commissioned as a lieutenant.

A new program caught the now lieutenant’s interest, although her chances of being accepted were slim to none, or so she thought.

“There was a flight school program, and I thought ‘why not?'” she said. “I had no interest in flying, but it was an opportunity, and I was going to take the ones presented to me.”

She was accepted for the flight school, but it took a while for her to garner respect from her fellow soldiers.

Wright completed the school and returned to Pennsylvania as the first female National Guard aviator.

“There was not a lot of celebration when I returned from flight school,” she said. “I came into a field that had been male dominated since the beginning of aviation and now I could do what they were able to do.”

For a while it was an uphill battle, said Wright, until a few veteran aviators decided to join her in the helicopter cockpit.

“World War II pilot Maynard Grant, a very respected aviator flew with me,” she said. “So did Phil Spence and Jerry Burton; all of them were well-known and respected among aviators.

“Their decision made it easier for me.”

In order to spend some time with her new husband, Wright transferred from the Pennsylvania National Guard to the Georgia National Guard, where she served with the 1160th Transportation Co. in Savannah and as assistant professor of military science at Georgia Southern University. Before returning to Pennsylvania in 1997, she was assigned to the Pentagon with the National Guard Bureau and attended the U.S. Army College, Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

“I had full intentions of returning to Washington because there was a job waiting for me,” she said of her planned one-year tenure as Aviation Brigade commander.

But duty again called, and she was asked to become the state Army Aviation Officer and two years later, Deputy Adjutant General-Army.

“I never had any aspirations of doing any of that. I always thought being a major was a great job; I’d cap out at major and that would be great,” said Wright. “I never thought I was going to go anywhere else nor did I think I would ever become Adjutant General.”

She didn’t apply for the top National Guard position, but was asked to interview for the state Cabinet post, which is a governor appointment.

“It was a Monday and they said that they would call me on Wednesday. Evidently they didn’t mean the following Wednesday, because several Wednesdays went by,” she said. “Eventually I determined that someone else had been chosen and that was fine with me. I liked what I was doing, and we would just march on.”

Her mother, however, had yet to give up.

“She would call every day, asking if I had heard anything,” she said. “Of course, I would have to tell her I didn’t and that news did not go over very well.

“‘They said they would call you Wednesday,’ she would tell me, but I didn’t have an answer for her.”

After several weeks had elapsed and any notions of a promotion had long past, her secretary came to her and reported that the governor was on the telephone.

“He asked if I wanted the job,” Wright recalled. “I had a whole range of emotions in a very short amount of time. You’re excited, happy, wondering if you could do the job, but I said yes.”

Her main focus, she said, is to “take care” of the soldiers and airman, but that entails much more than the phrase implies.

“I want to make sure whether they are going overseas or are here, that they have the very best training and equipment available,” she said. “We fight very hard to make sure that they have it.”

The war has taken a toll on the Pennsylvania National Guard since 9/11. Twenty-seven soldiers have lost their lives fighting with the U.S.-led coalition. It has also taken a personal toll on the Guard’s chief officer.

“That has been the hardest part,” said Wright as tears welled in her eyes. “They are like your own kids. Some of them are older, but they become your family.”

When a soldier is killed, Wright receives the first call and initiates the protocols to contact family members.

“We’ve done it 27 times, and it has never gotten any easier,” she said.

While there has been some discussion about the capabilities of the military, Wright champions those who volunteer to serve.

“All of our soldiers – airmen and army alike – the men and women are phenomenal.

“I’m sure there are some that join because they can receive a full college education,” said Wright. “However, when they raise their hand and I listen to them take their oath, it says that they are going to protect the United States and the commonwealth against enemies foreign and domestic. It doesn’t say anything that they are going to get a free education.

“(The enlistees) know, we tell them, they see soldiers going off to war and they know what is expected of them.”

According to those that serve alongside her, she is a soldier’s soldier and does not ask anything of anyone she does not ask first of herself.

“(Wright) is a caring and competent professional,” said Maj. Gen. Robert P. French, Deputy Commander, Joint Force Headquarters for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. “She tirelessly works to ensure both peoples’ needs and mission requirements are exceeded.”

Maj. Gen. Stephen M. Sischo, assistant adjutant general for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, said that Wright’s support in all aspects of the Guard’s operations has contributed to its overall success.

“Pennsylvania is extremely fortunate to have a leader of Gen. Wright’s caliber,” said Sischo. “Her considerable support has been essential to the success our guardsmen and women have enjoyed in all they do.

“I truly appreciate her leadership and guidance in matters pertaining to the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.”

Although she has already met the initial enlistment requirements, the Mon Valley native plans to stay in her current position for a few more years.

Gov. Ed Rendell recently asked Wright to serve another four years in the cabinet position and she responded in the affirmative.

“And this was just going to be a short term thing,” she said smiling.