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Teresa King

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Teresa L. King
Command Sergeant Major Teresa King at the change of responsibility ceremony taking over as commandant of the Drill Sergeant School, September 2009
Born1961
Clinton, North Carolina
AllegianceUnited States
Service / branchUnited States Army
Years of service1980–2013
RankCommand Sergeant Major
UnitXVIII Airborne Corps
AwardsLegion of Merit
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal (6)

Teresa L. King (born 1961) is a retired sergeant major in the United States Army. She was the first female commandant of the United States Army Drill Sergeant School at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.[1]

Early life

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King was born in Clinton, North Carolina, in 1961,[2] the eighth of twelve children. Her father was a sharecropper who grew cucumbers and tobacco.[3]

Army career

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King enlisted in the United States Army in 1980 and went to Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After training, King's first assignment was as a postal clerk in the 139th Postal Company located in Stuttgart, Germany.[4]

She volunteered for two years of drill sergeant duty and graduated from the United States Army Drill Sergeant School.[5] She was later assigned to 5th Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, at Fort Dix, New Jersey. She later served as the battalion's personnel sexual assault director (SAD).[6]

In 1987, King served as the administrative assistant to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army at the Pentagon. In 1988, she became the administrative assistant to the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA (formerly the Defense Security Assistance Agency, or DSAA), Office of the Secretary of Defense, also at the Pentagon. In 1991, King was assigned as aide to the senior enlisted advisor of the director of the DSCA, Office of the Secretary of Defense. She served there until 1993.

King left the Pentagon and was assigned to 18th Personnel Service Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, until 1996. King then served as the first sergeant for 19th Adjutant General Company (Postal) at Camp Casey, South Korea until 1997. In 1997, King became the first female First Sergeant for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, XVIII Airborne Corps, the largest company on Fort Bragg. King held that assignment until 2001.[3]

From 2002 to 2005, she served as command sergeant major of 3rd Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment tasked with Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She was inducted into the Order of St Maurice, Patron Saint of the Infantry, in 2005.

In 2005, King was assigned as the battalion command sergeant major of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) battalion, United States Army, NATO for two years. In 2007, she was assigned as the command sergeant major of 369th Adjutant General Battalion in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for another two years.

In 2009, King was appointed as commandant of the Drill Sergeant School, the first female in its history.[7] She served as Commandant until mid-2012, and worked to improve the school's program of instruction, focusing on the fundamentals and reinforcing standards and discipline, as well as moving the school from its old barracks to a new campus on Fort Jackson in 2011.

In 2011, King was suspended from her role as commandant of the Drill Sergeant School due to an internal personnel action investigation around her command style.[8] She was cleared of wrongdoing six months later and returned to duty.[9]

She retired from the Army effective May 31, 2013, and was awarded the Legion of Merit.[10] Her retirement came with a $10 million administrative claim of mistreatment feeling she was defamed due to bias against her as a woman, an African-American, and lack of service in a combat theater, and pushed out of the role of commandant.[9] When the administrative claim was not resolved in her favor, King sued the Army for racial and sexual discrimination.[11]

King was inducted into the Drill Sergeant Hall of Fame in 2017[12] as well as the National Women in Military Service to America Memorial at Arlington, Virginia.[13]

In 2019, King successfully sued the operators of a website for defaming her by alleging that personal misconduct had led to her suspension, and the publisher was ordered to pay her $150,000 in damages.[14] In 2023, King's request for the Army Board of Corrections for Military Records to remove from her personnel record the negative performance appraisal from 2011 that led to her suspension was successful, and the report was deleted from her file.[14]

Personal

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King holds an associate degree in General Studies from Northern Virginia Community College.[15] She completed a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies at Liberty University in 2014,[16] and in 2023 she completed a master of theological studies degree at Liberty.[17]

Awards

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Decorations, service medals and ribbons:

Badges

References

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  1. ^ U.S. Army Names 1st Female Drill Sergeant School Commandant At Fort Jackson Archived December 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, WJBF News, AP article, July 9, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2009.
  2. ^ Army picks first female commandant to lead Drill Sergeant School By Crystal Lewis Brown. U.S. Army News, July 30, 2009
  3. ^ a b Dao, James (September 21, 2009). "Drill Sergeant at Heart Ascends to Army's Top Spot". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  4. ^ "King continues to make history". www.army.mil. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  5. ^ A new commander to train US drill sergeants? Yes, ma'am! by Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, July 13, 2009
  6. ^ Command Sergeant Major Teresa L. King Archived December 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Fort Jackson Drill Sergeant School web page. Retrieved December 9, 2009.
  7. ^ "First female commandant takes reins at Drill Sergeant School". www.army.mil. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  8. ^ "Army suspends commandant of Drill Sergeant School". www.army.mil. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Former Ft. Jackson drill school commander says bias sabotaged her job". thestate. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  10. ^ Joe Gould, Army Times, Ex-Drill Sergeant School Chief Retires – With Honors, June 3, 2013
  11. ^ Schafer, Susanne M. (May 20, 2014). "Retired female Army drill sergeant commander sues". ABC News 4. Charleston, SC. Associated Press.
  12. ^ "'Trailblazers' inducted into hall of fame". www.army.mil. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  13. ^ "Women In Military Service For America Memorial". www.womensmemorial.org. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  14. ^ a b Fitts, Mark (May 21, 2023). "Vindication comes in change to service record for Columbia woman who broke barriers in Army". The Post and Courier. Charleston, SC.
  15. ^ South Carolina House of Representatives (2011). "House Resolution 4557: To Recognize and Honor Command Sergeant Major Teresa L. King". scstatehouse.gov. Columbia, SC: South Carolina General Assembly. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
  16. ^ Selah. Lynchburg, VA: Liberty University. 2014. pp. 133–134 – via Issuu.
  17. ^ "Liberty University 2023 Commencement Participation List" (PDF). Liberty.edu. Lynchburg, VA: Liberty University. May 8, 2023. p. 105.
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