Isle resident Army Reserve's first female JAG general
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Affairs Writer
With her promotion Friday to brigadier general in the Army Reserve, Hawai'i's Coral Wong Pietsch established a couple of firsts.
The senior civilian attorney at Fort Shafter, Pietsch became the first Asian-Pacific female general in the 226-year history of the Army, and the first woman to reach the rank in the Army Judge Advocate General Corps.
Pietsch is the first Asian-Pacific female general in the Army's 226-year history.
Pietsch was traveling on the Mainland yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
Pietsch, who is chief judge for the Army's Legal Services Agency in Falls Church, Va., in her reserve role, had a star pinned on each shoulder at a Pentagon ceremony by the Army's judge advocate general, Maj. Gen. Walter B. Huffman; her husband, Jim Pietsch; and her mother, Mary Ann Conway.
"Coral is a great lawyer and a great soldier," Huffman said at the ceremony. "That's why she is here today."
A second-generation Chinese American, Pietsch joined the Army as a lawyer in 1974. There weren't a lot of female JAG officers at the time: Pietsch has estimated the number at maybe 20 out of 1,500 lawyers worldwide.
Pietsch's second duty station was Fort Shafter; she and her husband made Hawai'i home in 1988 when they purchased a house atop Pacific Heights. In her civilian role, Pietsch is chief of the civil law division of the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate for U.S. Army Pacific.
