The California National Guard will have its first female leader under the appointment Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of Mary J. Kight as adjutant general Monday.
Kight, currently a brigadier general and the second in command, will replace Gen. William H. Wade II on Tuesday. Wade is leaving to take a high-ranking position with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Naples, Italy.
Kight, 59, of Sacramento, will also become the first African American woman to lead any national guard.
She has served in the California force for about 25 years, according to the governor’s office. She spent three years in the Nebraska Air National Guard and served in the Air Force from 1974 to 1981.
The position is subject to confirmation by the state Senate and pays $180,201 a year. Kight is a Republican.
The national guard trains service men and women for active duty and responds to disasters both in and outside California. The state’s national guard force is the largest in the country, currently numbering more than 21,000 men and women.
— Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento