Lt Gen Carol Mutter

Carol Mutter served for over 31 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. As the first woman in the Marines to be promoted to both major general and lieutenant general, her military career has made history. After she graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in mathematics education, she was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. In the early 1990s as a brigadier general, she was the first woman of general/flag rank to command a major deployable tactical command, the 3rd Force Service Support Group in Okinawa, Japan. In 1994 she became the first woman major general in the Corps and the senior woman on active duty in the Armed Forces. She went on in 1996 to become the first woman in any of the services to be nominated by the President of the United States for three stars. At that time she was the only woman among 107 male three-star military officers in the nation. Since transitioning to civilian life in 1999, Mutter has continued to work for women Marines and serve as a role model. She leads the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and is the president of the Women Marines Association.