Military Appreciation Month is observed in May and includes Armed Forces Day to honor the men and women who have served in the American military.
For Armed Forces Day 2024, which falls on Saturday, May 18th, Women of Color magazine celebrates Major General Janeen L. Birckhead.
She was recognized as one of Women of Color magazine's Women of the Year in the spring of 2024.
Birckhead has been the Maryland Army National Guard adjutant general since April 2023.
She heads the Maryland Military Department. She is the only Black woman leading a state military.
Birckhead joined the United States Army as a second lieutenant on May 12, 1991. From June to November that year, she attended chemical school at Fort McClellan.
She then served as a chemical officer in the 419th Chemical Detachment in Washington, D.C., until May 1993. She was then transferred to the 29th Rear Area Operations Center until August 1995.
From 1995 to 1996, she was the aide-de-camp to the Adjutant General in Baltimore, Maryland.
From April 2017 to May 2018, Birckhead served as the director of legislative affairs of the Maryland National Guard.
She served as the assistant adjutant general from June 2018 to April 2023. She had a dual-hatted assignment from March 2020 to May 2023 as the deputy commanding general reserve affairs of the United States Army War College.
Birckhead was a senior advisor in the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration within the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In March 2023, Birckhead was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.
In April 2023, she was promoted to major general and named by Governor Wes Moore as the 31st adjutant general of Maryland.
She was previously a senior advisor in the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration and the assistant adjutant general from June 2018 to April 2023.
In 1991, she completed a B.A. in political science at Hampton University, where she was a Reserve Officers' Training Corps member. She earned an M.A. in management from the University of Maryland University College and an M.S.S. in strategic studies at the United States Army War College.
