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FORT HUACHUCA - When she was a little girl in New Jersey, Susan Browning didn't play with dolls. She pretended she was a cowboy or a soldier.
Those play times as a soldier paid off, for soon the 57-year-old woman will be retiring from the Army after more than 36 years in the military.
She will retire as Col. Susan Browning, chief of staff of the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, saying farewell to nation's oldest military service during a Thursday morning ceremony at the gazebo on Brown Parade Field.
 Col. Susan Browning (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
It was, as she said, "a long circuitous route" before she ended up in the Army.
Air Force, then Navy
Wanting to be a pilot, Browning approached an Air Force recruiter when she was 15 to start the procedures to become a pilot. She was taking student pilot training in high school at the time.
The recruiter told her to come back when she was 17. Browning later enlisted in the Air Force when she graduated from high school.
When it was time for her to leave the Air Force, a second lieutenant thought she was making a wise decision.
"I was a little too rebellious," Browning said.
Her constant questioning usually starting with the word "why" didn't sit well with some of her superiors.
While the Vietnam War was going on and she was an Air Force communications specialist, Browning remembered seeing the daily list of causalities coming over the lines, especially during the communist Tet offensive in 1968.
"The names just came and came and came," she said.
After leaving the Air Force she enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Daytona Beach, Fla., where she eventually earned a bachelor's degree in aviation management.
Her desires to serve in the military didn't vanish.
While she attended college, Browning enlisted in a reserve unit that flew aircraft watching Soviet submarines off the coast of Florida. Because she was a woman, she was denied a berth on the Navy patrol planes. Instead she was relegated to watching a scope in a building.
Still unsatisfied, Browning, degree in hand, looked for a job at a civilian airport, opting for Denver.
Short job in Denver
"I just picked up all my things and went to Colorado," she said.
Ending up at a small fixed base operation as the fourth assistant manager, Browning found her degree was only good for her to drive a fuel truck and haul hoses over wings of planes.
Those were the days when women were not given or expected to be in positions of authority.
More than once Browning would hear words that denied her good jobs by being told "you're a female."
There were a lot of harsh realities facing women more than three decades ago.
During her short sojourn - about six months - in Colorado, Browning lived in the YMCA cashing in her saving bonds she purchased while in the Air Force so she could eat.
But still there was that drive to serve in uniform.
Looks to the Army
She went to an Army recruiter and again sought something involving flying, only to find that door still closed to women.
Browning enlisted, having a choice of becoming a linguist specializing in Chinese Mandarin or a Morse code intercept operator. She chose the latter.
The separate corps for women - the WACs - still existed. Fortunately, the intelligence community in the Army was opening its doors to females.
Since she had a college degree, she applied for a direct commission.
"One day I was a 'Spec. 4' and the next day a second lieutenant," Browning said.
Some male leaders in the Army at that time still had the philosophy that women can't lead. When Browning came to Fort Huachuca to attend the intelligence basic officers course, one of the instructors said he didn't like second lieutenants. She said he even had more disdain for women second lieutenants. Leaning over to a classmate, she said she whispered that the male officer who made that comment was going to learn a lesson from her.
"I've beaten him into submission," Browning said with a laugh.
Six weeks later she married the man - now retired Army aviator Maj. James Browning - and their 30 years together have been good.
Big changes
in intelligence
Army intelligence has changed from when she put on the golden bars as a second lieutenant.
In the early days of her career, the main enemy was the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. The Army was geared to fight a major land war in Europe and that meant she got to know about her counterpart across the line.
"I grew up (in the intelligence community) knowing my counterpart's personality," the colonel said.
The nation and the Army's intelligence community now face a lot of unknowns, she said. There are no direct counterparts to know in the global war on terrorism. The enemy is fluid and ever changing.
After the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the Army's intelligence community was behind. Now, through lessons learned process training at the Intelligence Center on Fort Huachuca, the important intelligence community is ahead, the chief of staff said.
Soldiers of all ranks have the ability to change fast and direct their energies in new ways, she said.
First experience in Iraq
During the first war with Iraq in the early 1990s, Browning was the executive officer of the 533rd Military Intelligence Battalion, which was part of the 3rd Armored Division. Being in charge of the battalion's rear command post, she was called by the unit's commander who was moving with the attacking forces to bring up some fuel to keep his vehicles going.
"They were running out of fuel," she said. "I was told, 'Browning you need to find fuel.'"
She and 30 other soldiers went off looking for fuel trucks and finally found some, and the small convoy pushed toward the front, following the glow of multiple rocker launchers, marking where the American forces were located.
Getting to the front was a problem because of Iraqi minefields and other potential problems. She told the convoy to follow the tracks of her vehicle.
Her driver, a Sgt. James, asked her whose tracks should he follow?
"I had no clue," she said, adding that training as an intelligence officer had not provided her with what would be normal for an infantry officer.
But there were plenty of tracks in the desert ahead of them and those are the ones her driver followed.
The support of the battalion's command sergeant major who was with her in the rear command post boosted her confidence.
In her early days as an intelligence officer, Browning said she had no senior officer mentors. The warrant officers and senior noncommissioned officers were her mentors.
Questioning authority doesn't go
Browning admits she hasn't lost her personality trait of questioning authority.
What has gotten her before a commander was not questioning authority as much as it was her body language. More than once a commander told her that he could read her body language that translated in her telling him he was an idiot.
It wasn't that they didn't like the message, it was just how she was telling them while saying "yes sir," Browning said as a wide smile came across her face.
She has never been able to control her body language and doesn't intend to start now.
During her climb up the ladder, Browning continued to meet male officers who did not appreciate women officers.
When she was assigned to 101st Military Intelligence Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas, Browning was told by the division's senior intelligence officer she would never sit in his chair. She eventually became the division's senior intelligence officer and sat in the chair.
Although no one was in the office, Browning said, "Here I am."
The challenge of the former occupant was met and won.
Retirement home
near Tombstone
Browning will be retiring close to the fort, but she promises not to be one of the colonels who continues to wear her rank in retirement.
She and her husband have built a home near Tombstone, which they are calling the Eagle Rest Ranch. Pointing to the eagles of her rank insignia, the colonel said it has nothing to do with them. Instead, it is because there are eagles on their land.
On her first trip to Arizona to attend her basic course, she drove through Texas Canyon between Willcox and Benson, declaring "this is God's country." Her husband, a Texan, agrees.
The girl from New Jersey left her Eastern roots behind and became a westerner. She is an accomplished horse woman, having done fox hunting and roping.
She was suppose to leave the Army last year, when her 35 years of service required mandatory retirement. But she was asked to remain in service for one more year, making her tour as the chief of staff at the Intelligence Center four years.
"I was glad to stay in uniform," she said.
For many who have worked with her, Browning is a hard leader, much like a rancher on horseback who expects things to be done fast and properly.
But there is a soft spot when she began talking about soldiers. Her tough facade slightly crumbled, as tears formed in her eyes.
The additional year gave her more time to be around soldiers.
"They (the soldiers) are the ones who make everything happen," Browning said. "But now is the right time to leave, to make a fresh start."
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Ezai I. Martinez wrote on Jun 24, 2009 7:58 PM: