A Call to Serve

Alumna Blazes a Trail in the U.S. Army

Brig. Gen. Brown says this is one of her favorite photos. It was taken after she reunited with her family from a deployment to Afghanistan.

Jacqueline “Denise” McPhail Brown (’92) is a perfect example of what’s possible with a Georgia Southern education. When Brown first arrived on campus, she had no plans to follow in the footsteps of her father, who served in the military. As a first-year student, her entry into the ROTC happened by chance.

“I joined ROTC almost unintentionally,” said Brown. “My freshman year, I signed up for a mountaineering class. I did not realize it was an ROTC class, but I fell in love [with ROTC] starting with that mountaineering class.”

That ROTC class was followed by a few more and before long, Brown realized she had found where she belonged.

“Georgia Southern is what led me to find my career and calling,” said Brown. “The ROTC Cadre’s caring and involved leadership and the comradery made an impression on me, and I knew I had found my place.”

Brown not only thrived in the ROTC; she has thrived in her decades of service in the United States Army. Today, she is a brigadier general and the J6/Director of Command, Control, Communications and Cyber for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). Headquartered in Hawaii, USINDOPACOM includes 380,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and Department of Defense civilians and is responsible for all U.S. military activities in the Indo-Pacific covering 36 nations and more than 50% of the world’s population.

“It’s humbling to be a general officer in the U.S. Army, because it brings with it insight into the challenges our nation is facing, and the work we need to do,” she said.

COLLEGE MEMORIES

Brown, a business major in production and operations management, lived most of her childhood years in Austell, Georgia. She was active in Girl Scouts, church and little league sports. In high school, she was a varsity athlete and for a time, the school mascot. Her love of sports is what brought her to Georgia Southern. Impressed with the “spirited athletics program,” Brown joined the volleyball team. Some of her favorite memories as an Eagle are connected to the football championship games including the memorable “Hugo Bowl.”

“I was actually a member of the color guard for that game,” said Brown. “There’s nothing like holding a weapon or a flag in a hurricane. It’s a great memory.”

A charter member of the University’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, the alumna acknowledged the important role Georgia Southern has played in her life.

“The professors at Georgia Southern had a profound impact on me, because of the subjects they taught, but also because of their consistent patience and dedication to my education,” she said, singling out the ROTC instructors who helped keep her grounded and pushed her to achieve her goals. “And most importantly of all, Georgia Southern is where I met my husband, Chris, and today we are approaching our 29th wedding anniversary.”

Once Brown received her commission through the ROTC, she headed to Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia, to complete her signal training. She spent her first military tour at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska.

“That was a shock to the system,” she said. “I don’t think I have ever been that cold in my life, but I absolutely loved it. Coming from a warm climate like Georgia, it took me quite a while to get acclimated, and I spent my first year there overdressed for everything.”

CLIMBING THE RANKS

The general’s 28-year military career has included a variety of command positions in deployments around the world, which include three combat tours and multiple tours in Washington, D.C. In assignments at the Pentagon, she worked with the Army staff and with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She is currently on her second tour in Hawaii where she leads a team that plans and directs communications and cyberspace operations for the Joint Force to drive operational success in those domains in the Pacific region.

“I think the greatest satisfaction I’ve experienced in my career has come from experiences that were the results of the shared success of teams, both when I served as a member and when I served as a leader of those teams,” she said. “Most memorable are my two deployments to Iraq with the 3rd Signal Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, and my deployment to Afghanistan with the 307th Expeditionary Signal Battalion from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.”

Brown says the military’s comradeship and the culture influenced her decision to build a career in the Army. While her promotion to brigadier general was a result of years of discipline and commitment, she noted her military service did not come without challenges.

“While the deployments I mentioned have been the highlights of my career,” she said. “They’ve also been the most challenging personally, because they required me to be separated from my family for long periods of time. The most fulfilling aspect of a military career is being deployed, because it is when you put into practice the intensive training you have received over many years, but at the same time, it is the hardest part of the job because of how intensely you miss your family. Above all, the most difficult times are experiencing the loss of a soldier or their family members. It is heart-wrenching.”

Brown holds two master’s degrees — one in telecommunications management from Webster University and another in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

Her numerous military decorations and awards include the Bronze Star Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal and the NATO International Security Assistance Force Medal to name a few.

“Those awards are really a reflection of the achievements that resulted from the hard work of service members and civilians working for me or alongside me,” the general said. “So, when I think of each award that I received, I think of the teammates and the team effort that it was awarded for.”

Brown called it an honor to serve and is grateful for all the opportunities the Army has given her. She emphasized it offers a wealth of opportunities to Georgia Southern students, particularly women, who want to follow her footsteps.

“There are career paths that women are pursuing that I don’t think they would pursue if not for the military,” she said. “For instance, take the young ladies that have recently graduated from the Army Ranger school. I’m not sure what the equivalent would be outside of the military for women to be able to do that. I think the military is a great place, not just for women, but I would say for all genders, ethnicities and races because it’s a melting pot of our society, and an opportunity to build community on the sole basis of shared goals. The diversity in the military community builds diversity of thought, which helps every individual grow exponentially.”

The general acknowledged that her journey to her leadership position would not have been possible without the support of her husband, Chris, their two sons, Justin and Cade, and phenomenal mentors.

“My husband supported my pursuit of a military career at every step of the way, and my kids have been and continue to be good sports, treating every new assignment as a new adventure,” she explained. “Without the support of my family, I do not think I would have had the success that I’ve had in the Army,” and she explained, “When I talk about mentors, it’s not just leaders that have served, it’s soldiers and peers as well as civilians who are nonmilitary members who have shared their insight whenever I needed it. And finally, it’s the leaders who took a chance with me, and gave me the opportunities to prove myself.”

In her downtime, Brown spends time with her family and their two cats, Weezy and Smokey, rescued during the height of the pandemic.

— Sandra Bennett