RICHMOND, Va. — The 80th Training Command, The Army School System (TASS), welcomed its first female commanding general Brig. Gen. Patricia Wallace, during an Assumption of Command ceremony here at the Frank B. Lotts Conference Center in Northern Chesterfield on January 21, 2023.

Brig. Gen. Wallace received the colors from presiding officer Maj. Gen. Eugene LeBouef, Deputy Command General, United States Army reserve Command, representing her accepting command. Upon acceptance of command Brig. Gen. Wallace became the first woman to lead the 80th in the command’s 105-year history.

“If I wasn’t the first, if the spotlight wasn’t on me, I wouldn’t have a big enough platform to pull NCOs and officers up to higher levels,” said Brig. Gen. Wallace.

Brig. Gen. Wallace also expressed how excited she and her husband are to once again be with the 80th Training Command as she previously held the position of Chief of Internal Review for the 80th.

As commander, she will command three one-star Training Divisions, 13 functional TASS School Brigades, one Training Support Brigade, 59 School Battalions, eight Training Centers, four Regional Training and two High-Tech Training Sites, three NCO Academies and a training relationship with a Multi-Functional Training Brigade in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Germany.

Brig. Gen. Wallace mentioned that she is a mentor to different officers she’s met, and her hope is that they can one day be where she is, but she wants them to do it by being who they are.

“I found that I was more successful when I focused on my strengths,” she said.

Her role in supporting that vision is to be accessible to not only those she mentors, but to all the Soldiers – officers and enlisted alike – and civilians she leads. She wanted them to know, “there will be bumps in the road, but reach out to me, your squad your team, and we will help you get through it.”

Brig Gen Wallace acknowledges this role will be challenging, but if she leaves the 80th Training Command with higher retention rates, she will feel she did her job successfully.

Brig. Gen. Wallace thanked her husband during her speech and recognized that his support allows her to continue in her career.

Brig. Gen. Wallace expressed that she is excited to get started with the job she was assigned to do, to be the commander of the 80th Training Command, and to continue the relationship with the United States Army Reserve Command (USARC), and the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).