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Making history was never in the plans for retired Massachusetts National Guard Brigadier General Andrea Gayle-Bennett.
But when opportunity arose, the former Northeastern University student embraced it.
It’s a lesson Gayle-Bennett, currently the state’s first deputy secretary of the Executive Office of Veterans Services, plans to pass on to new Northeastern veteran graduates during a reception on Friday evening.
“We’re all leaders. Remember that,” she said.
Gayle-Bennett’s groundbreaking achievements are now a matter of record. But she says they were far from being pre-ordained.
In addition to being appointed second-in-command at the newly created veterans services office last June, she was the first Black female colonel in the history of the Massachusetts Army National Guard and the first non-physician — and first African American — to serve as the Guard’s state surgeon, which is a policymaking role.
“I stepped through the door each time an opportunity presented itself,” said Gayle-Bennett, who also likes to quote a saying that is also a favorite of tech industry executive Sheryl Sandberg, “If somebody offers you a ride on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.”
In Gayle-Bennett’s case, the unlikely invitation came in the form of a postcard asking recipients to apply for a part-time position with the Massachusetts National Guard.
A young, married mother looking for a part-time job to keep up with the requirements for her physician assistant license, Gayle-Bennett had never thought of working for the military.
“It was not anywhere in my universe,” she said.
Her closest connection to the military was a roommate at Northeastern who had a boyfriend in the Marines who was a presidential guard during the Carter administration, which she thought was an impressive assignment.
“I had that in the back of my head,” Gayle-Bennett said. “So I answered the ad.”
For the next few decades, while establishing a career with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston, raising four children and earning a doctor of medical science degree, she spent one weekend a month and two weeks a year serving in the Massachusetts National Guard making sure soldiers’ medical needs were met.
In 2009, Gayle-Bennett was sent to Iraq to run a battalion aid station.
“It was not what I expected,” she said. “I expected maybe I’d have to go to Cape Cod or Westover. But I got deployed to Iraq.”
“We were the medical providers for the 101st engineer battalion. I was in charge of the clinic,” Gayle-Bennett said.
She cared for wounded and injured soldiers in conditions that were primitive compared to an American hospital. The clinic was housed in a solid structure, but there was no indoor plumbing and the bathrooms consisted of port-a-potties.
Gayle-Bennett said she developed unbreakable bonds with the people she worked with during her four months in Iraq.
“You are in this environment that is austere and dangerous. Your life is now on the line. You really become family with the people who are there. The bond is really deep. I’ve never experienced that level of friendship or camaraderie. I’m still friends with a lot of people I deployed with 10 years ago.”
When Gayle-Bennett was appointed to serve as deputy secretary of the new state Executive Office of Veterans Affairs last year, Gov. Maura Healey said her “distinguished career in medicine and military service” made her uniquely qualified to advance the health and well-being of Massachusetts veterans.
The military part of her career would have come to a sudden stop years ago, however, without the help of a mentor, Gayle-Bennett said.
Turned down twice for promotion, she was coming against a mandatory discharge.
Gayle-Bennett said she talked to someone about how she enjoyed her time in the Guard. He took her under his wing and told her about the classes she needed to take to advance her career.
“I didn’t know there was a pathway for military careers. You have to do certain trainings to be promoted. I hadn’t done them. Once I was shown the map, that was everything,” she said.
Gayle-Bennett officially retired from the Massachusetts National Guard in 2018 but got on the State Retired List of people eligible for service and continued promotion.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the Guard reactivated her to serve in an administrative role, supplementing the National Guard with staffing of nursing homes and testing stations.
That same year her dedication and leadership was recognized with a promotion to brigadier general or one-star general in the Massachusetts National Guard. Gayle-Bennett says at the federal level she holds the rank of colonel.
In the meantime, she volunteered with Disabled American Veterans helping veterans get connected to services.
“Whatever needs came up, I would do my best to help,” Gayle-Bennett said. “There are so many resources out there that nobody knows about. There are so many veterans who don’t know where to turn.”
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services was established by legislation in 2022 on the heels of a scandal involving the Soldiers Home in Holyoke, where at least 76 veterans — nearly one-third of the residents — died due a COVID outbreak in 2020.
The legislation elevated veterans’ services to a cabinet level office, headed by Healey appointee Jon Santiago, who named Gayle-Bennett his deputy secretary.
Gayle-Bennett said she is thrilled to continue her work helping veterans “on a grand scale.”
She spends much of her time talking to groups of veterans about their needs and chairing the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Women Veterans.
“Homelessness is a really huge issue for veterans,” Gayle-Bennett said. “They served their country, and they are couch surfing.”
Gayle-Bennett said she plans to double back on her advice about working with mentors when she addresses veterans graduating from Northeastern and their families at a reception in their honor on Friday.
A mentor can help them figure out things that would have taken years otherwise, she said.
The co-op program at Northeastern also is a boon to students, Gayle-Bennett said.
“It gave me real-world experience. It really allowed me to see what I did and did not want to do,” she said.
TV personality Joan Lunden advised her to “just do it and you’ll figure it out” when someone offers you an opportunity, she said.
“There will always be naysayers. Don’t listen to them.”