WGNO

Louisiana National Guard general retires after 38 years of service

Michaela Romero

NEW ORLEANS –Brig. Gen. Joanne F. Sheridan, assistant adjutant general-Army, is pinned by her husband Mark Sheridan and her father Command Sgt. Major (Retired) Joe S. Fernald with the one-star rank insignia during her official promotion ceremony at Jackson Barracks Museum in New Orleans, July 27, 2012. Sheridan, who has filled numerous leadership positions and served in Iraq, is the first female general officer in the LANG and the 27th currently serving in the National Guard. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Master Sgt. Toby Valadie, Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office)

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— The first woman general in the Louisiana National Guard retired this month and her colleagues held a ceremony in her honor.

Maj. Gen. Joanne F. Sheridan retired from the Louisiana National Guard after 38 years of military and state service.

She was honored at the Adjutant General’s Office at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans.

Louisiana National Guard Maj. Gen. Joanne F. Sheridan’s husband and father remove her old rank and replace it with the new rank of Maj. Gen at the Ansel M. Stroud Military History & Weapons Museum at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, July 23, 2017. In her new role as the assistant adjutant general, she now serves serves as a principal advisor to the adjutant general. She is responsible for assisting the adjutant general in the deployment and coordination of programs, policies, and plans for the LANG. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Josiah Pugh)

According to a National Guard news release, Sheridan became the first female general officer in the Louisiana National Guard in 2012, and she went on to become the first female two-star general officer in 2017.

During the ceremony, Sheridan was recongnized for all her accomplishments throughout the years.

She served many roles such as:

Sheridan expressed her bittersweet emotions, “I am leaving here, after 38 years in Louisiana, with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.”