News

Gender no impediment to Illinois Guard colonel

Posted February 18, 2008 10:00 pm

John Reynolds

The first female director of operations for the Illinois Army National Guard didn't envision the military as a lifelong career.

Col. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, 43, originally planned on a career in hospital administration, but caught the military bug when she took an introductory ROTC class at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She ended up taking a full-time job with the Guard, and is now one of only three women who are full colonels in the Illinois Army National Guard.

As director of operations, Tate-Nadeau is responsible for training and preparing Guard personnel for deployments. She began her new job in December. She called it a dream assignment because it allows her to help make policy and also stay in touch with enlisted Guard members.

"As an officer, very oftentimes, as you go up in rank, you lose touch with the common soldier on a regular day-to-day basis. But … we touch the soldiers lives every time they go out to train," Tate-Nadeau said.

Tate-Nadeau has been in the military for 23 years. She recently has served as spokeswoman for the Illinois Guard, and she did a tour in Iraq from about May 2005 to May 2006.

There, she was assigned to a multi-national division in which part of her job was to get information out to the Iraqi people about elections, often in the form of five-minute TV spots. She also worked with the Iraqi army and police force.

"We also gave recommendations to the division commander on how to use the media and other folks as a means to communicate with civilians," Tate-Nadeau said.

She said the fact that she is a woman didn't present any problems when dealing with people from other cultures.

"Only once with an Iraqi did I have an issue," Nadeau said. "We were walking through a gated area, and an Iraqi officer said, 'Ladies first.' Then he mutters, 'Only for Americans."

Tate-Nadeau didn't ignore the under-the-breath comment, and asked the Iraqi what he meant.

"He was like, we see you as a U.S. Army officer, and therefore we respect your culture and things, but in my culture, we would never allow the woman to go through first," she said.

In addition to being the first woman director of operations for the Army National Guard in Illinois, Tate-Nadeau is the first Hispanic to hold the position.

Her Hispanic heritage goes back to her paternal grandfather, who crossed over into America illegally from Mexico.

The family story goes that once in California, he saw a sign that said "Tate for Sheriff," and he decided to adopt that name to help assimilate into American society. Tate-Nadeau does not know what her grandfather's original last name was, and most of her other relatives are Scotch-Irish.

Nowadays, Tate-Nadeau is known as Colonel, or, in some cases, "Col. T.N."

"Most people can't say Tate-Nadeau, so they just call 'Colonel T.N.' I like it," Tate-Nadeau said.

After taking that first ROTC class in Oklahoma, Nadeau signed up for the National Guard. The medical field was still her first choice when she started working on a master's degree in hospital administration, but as luck would have, it, she was offered a full-time position in the Illinois Army National Guard.

"I kind of got into the military on a fluke," Tate-Nadeau said. "I wish I could say it was originally duty, honor, country and all the things I believe now."

John Reynolds can be reached at (217) 788-1524.

Col. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, 43

Position: Director of operations for the Illinois Army National Guard

Hometown: Delavan

Family: Daughter, Lindsey, 17, and son, Gavin, 11

On being a woman in the military: "Sometimes, people first see your gender, and they might have some pre-conceived notions of what you are as a leader. But after working with folks, the beauty of soldiers is that they trust you based on how you treat them… Once they know you will stand up for them, that you will do what's right for them, they stop looking at your gender and start looking at you as their leader."

Article Categories
News