A career military intelligence officer with numerous combat deployments, including with the Army’s most elite special operations forces, has been selected for another trailblazing assignment.
If confirmed by the Senate, MG Michelle Schmidt ’92 will command the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, making her the first woman to lead one of the Army’s active-duty maneuver divisions.
She most recently was director of force development in the office of the deputy Army chief of staff for resources and plans, G-8. Her assignment to lead the 7th Infantry Division was announced in an Aug. 14 DoD news release.
Her selection comes after MG Laura Yeager became the first woman to assume command of a U.S. Army infantry division when she took command of the California National Guard’s 40th Infantry Division in 2019. Yeager is now retired.
Activated in 1917, the 7th Infantry Division fought in Europe in World War I and the Pacific in World War II. Its soldiers also fought during the Korean War, remaining on the line at the Demilitarized Zone until 1971. The division deployed to Honduras for Operation Golden Pheasant and to Panama for Operation Just Cause. In 2015, the division headquarters deployed to Afghanistan for a yearlong deployment.
Today, it enables and sustains two Stryker brigade combat teams and a combat aviation brigade and participates in exercises and operations in support of U.S. Army Pacific and the Indo-Pacific region.
A 1992 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, Schmidt began her career as a platoon leader in the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, according to an Army biography. She was a company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division, served as the intelligence officer for the division’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and later for the division, and was the senior intelligence officer and squadron commander for 1st Special Operations Detachment-Delta.
