Heidi V. Brown
Heidi Virginia Brown (born 20 July 1959) is a retired U.S. Army Major General who was the first woman to command an air defense battalion and later, in combat, an air defense brigade. Biography 
Born in Texas and raised in El Paso, Brown graduated from Austin High School in 1977. That same year, she was nominated by Congressman Richard Crawford White to the United States Military Academy. In 1981, she graduated from the second West Point class to include women. In 1993, she graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Later, she earned a master's degree in education from the University of South Carolina. Brown worked at the Pentagon where she developed a computer program to identify demographic profiles of deployed Army units. In September 1997, she returned to Ft. Bliss. She was in charge of a PATRIOT missile battalion in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the late 1990s. During this time, when she led the 2-43 Air Defense Artillery Battalion, she became the first woman to command an air defense battalion. In 2002, Brown became the first  woman to command an air defense artillery brigade in the Army. In 2003, she became the first woman to command a brigade, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, in combat during the Iraq War. In 2008, she took a new assignment in combat support operations. Later she became the director of global operations for the U.S. Strategic Command stationed in Offutt Air Force Base. Brown retired as an Army Major General in 2017. She retired to Locust Grove, Virginia. References 

1959 births
Living people
Military personnel from El Paso, Texas
United States Military Academy alumni
Women in the military
United States Army officers
United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni
University of South Carolina alumni
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Female generals of the United States Army
American LGBT military personnel