Air Guard gets
first female general

Kathleen Berg is now chief
of staff and works at UH

Kathleen F. Berg will become the Hawaii Air National Guard's first female one-star general when she is promoted on Monday.

Also being promoted is Brig. Gen. Darryll Wong, who will become a two-star general as head of the nearly 2,400 citizen airmen force. Wong is also assistant adjutant general. Both promotions were confirmed by the Senate on July 29.

Berg, 57, also was the first woman in the Hawaii Army and Air National Guard to be promoted to colonel, in March 2002, and now becomes the first female to wear silver stars.

Berg currently serves as the Air Guard's chief of staff. She works full time at the University of Hawaii's College of Education.

"I actually was recruited into the Air Guard by my husband," Berg said. "I had been an Air Force wife for six years, and after my husband left the Air Force in 1973, he was recruited into the Guard."

Back then, Berg had just received her bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaii and had been working as a math teacher at the UH Lab School.

"That was in 1977, and I was looking around and thinking what's next," Berg said. "I actually started my military career late. I was 29 when I joined. But I was looking for a challenge, and my husband said, 'Kathy, you will do well.'"

Berg graduated from UH with a bachelor's degree in education in 1973, a master's degree in 1980 and her doctorate in 1992.

She was named commander of the 293th Combat Communications Squadron in May 1993 and stayed in command until May 2000.

The Hawaii Air National Guard comprises the 154th Wing, the 201st Combat Communications Group and the 199th Weather Flight.

Berg is the second woman in the Hawaii's citizen military force to become a general officer. The other is Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Cora Wong Pietsch, who received her first star in March 2001 as a military lawyer.

Berg also is one of several general officers who have served while still working at UH.