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Isle woman They met in law school nearly three decades ago.
nominated for
brigadier general
If OK'd by the Senate, she will be
the first Asian American
female generalBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinHe was on leave from the Army, studying to become a military lawyer. She was fresh from college with a bachelor's degree in theater and a master's in drama.
"The Army offered us the opportunity to pursue a career together," said Coral Wong Pietsch.
"It gave us a chance to practice law together."
Today, she is on her way to becoming the first woman chief judge of the U.S. Army Legal Services Agency and the first Asian American female general.
Pietsch recalls that when she joined the Army as a lawyer in 1974, fresh out of Catholic University, there were 1,400 attorneys in the Judge Advocate General's Corps.
"Twenty of them were women and three were married couples," she said.
The Army and being a lawyer "presented great opportunities and great challenges," she said.
She was born in Waterloo, Iowa, where her father emigrated from Canton to start a Chinese restaurant.
"He met my mother there and that is where I was born."
After receiving a bachelor's degree from College of St. Teresa, Pietsch went to Marquette University, where she received a master's degree.
She had been an Army lawyer in South Korea and at Fort Shafter before she left active duty in 1980 and joined the Army Reserve here.
After leaving the Army, Pietsch went to work as a deputy attorney general from 1980 to 1986. She returned to the Army to work as a civilian lawyer at Fort Shafter while still maintaining her military obligation as a Army Reservist.
In May 2000, she was assigned as chief judge in the Army Reserve, supervising a staff of attorneys whose area of expertise includes administrative law, contract law, environmental law, ethics, fiscal law, operational law, and personnel and labor law for an Army command spanning half the world.
In her spare time, she and her husband, James, who retired as a colonel in the Army Reserve last year, enjoy running and rebuilding a stately old Pacific Heights home.
Her nomination to the rank of brigadier general was announced this week by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It is subject to Senate confirmation.