Photo By Sgt. Samanatha Whitehead | Chief Warrant Officer 5 Paula Prosser works in civilian clothes in her office at the...... read more read more
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Warrant officers are specialized experts in their fields and offer guidance and advice to commanders. With experience in nearly every directorate in the Guard and a military career spanning four decades there is no doubt about the expertise Chief Warrant Officer 5 Paula Prosser brings to the table.
What may not be so obvious is that she’s a warrant of many firsts, with both personal and professional accomplishments dotting a timeline of achievements. And even more impressive than the numbers and ranks - she holds a sort of serene humbleness about it.
The expertise and passion she has for the military becomes more evident as she talks about her storied career and the path she’s paved over 41 years.
If you ask her about the beginning of her story she’ll smile wryly and say, “When I was 17 I enlisted in the - get this! - the Women’s Army Corps.”
Then-17-year-old Prosser enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps on Jan. 8, 1974, with her mother’s signature and under the stipulation that she graduate high school in May.
“All females had to have a high school degree,” she says, hinting at the beginning of a succession of double standards she’d have to challenge in her 41 years in uniform.
“I went to basic at Fort McClellan, Alabama and AIT at Fort Gordon,” she says. “I was an MP. My first duty station was at Fort Bragg.”
The Military Police Corps had recently opened to women but the corps wasn’t quite ready to accept females, says Prosser.
“I was shoved away,” she says. “I watched a door in a top-secret library for eight-hour shifts.”
In July 1977, Prosser left active duty, working part time before she moved back to Missouri in October.
“My mother worked as a civilian at the Ike Skelton Training Site,” she says. “She would bring home job applications to me. I applied for a position in December and started here as a GS-3 as a data processing technician.”
Soon, however, she was back at it. Prosser enlisted in the Missouri National Guard as a private first class on Jan. 8, 1978. This was the beginning of decades-worth of being drawn to something in the Guard - in the military - that would make her want to stay.
“I originally joined for the educational benefits,” she says. “I was the oldest of five kids. It was my only way to go to college.”
Four years later she had achieved her educational goals while maintaining a Guard career and growing her family. She had married in May of 1978, earned her B.S. in business in May of 1982 and had her son in October of the same year.
By the time she was Staff Sgt. Prosser she felt she had hit a ceiling.
“There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for promotion for females,” she says. “The most you saw were E6s or E7s. The ratio was very outnumbered.”
Seeing that she might not be able to move much higher in her current situation, she began looking at the Warrant Officer Corps.
“I researched the packet and applied but they couldn’t pin my rank right away because there was no slot for it,” she says.
On Jan. 12, 1986, Staff Sgt. Prosser became Warrant Officer Prosser, where she would continue to advance past any glass ceiling that existed to become the first female Chief Warrant Officer 4 in the state of Missouri on July 8, 1999 and the second female Chief Warrant Officer 5 on July 28, 2015.
In between all those dates she changed positions within the Missouri Guard several times, finally settling in Human Resources where she has worked since February 2008. From the Women’s Army Corps to today’s fully integrated force, Prosser has seen quite a bit of change.
“Yes, it’s taken a while,” she says. “It’s been an adjustment for everyone, even the females.”
The biggest change isn’t even the opening of certain military occupational specialties; it’s the overall culture of the military.
“Now males and females are not counterparts, but compliments,” she says. “You don’t have to fight just to have a shot at the opportunities anymore.”
Women are joining and excelling for all the right reasons, she says.
Beyond the education she first sought as a private first class in 1978, something special has kept her in the uniform for the past 41 years. She, like everyone else is afforded, had the opportunity to retire at 20 years of service.
“Not me,” says Prosser. “I didn’t even think about it.”
Prosser thrives off the structure of the military and truly enjoys her job, which she cites as her main reason for staying with it for so long.
“I like what I do. I enjoy it and I continually learn,” she says. “If I woke up one day and wasn’t having fun anymore, it would be time to quit.”
Prosser was scheduled to retire this year after the pinning of her latest and final promotion, but that wasn’t going to be enough for her. She applied for and was granted an age waiver to extend her contract for two more years.
“I wasn’t going to just pin it and go,” she says of the promotion. “I’ve still got something to do.”
Her goal before her official retirement on Dec. 31, 2017, is to continue to mentor other soldiers - male and female.
“I want to ask them what I can do to help and help them reach their goals,” she says, “The Guard is a team and I try to mentor everyone on this team equally.”
Her example and precedent is enough to inspire younger troops, and she wants people to be inspired to push for more historical moments in the Guard and their careers.
“I’d still like to see more firsts in the Missouri Guard,” she says. “I’d really like to see a female adjutant general.”
Her official retirement date is soon approaching, at least in hindsight.
“You look up one day and it’s all gone by,” she says. “Time flies, it really does.”
She laughs genuinely and heartily about her retirement date, which she refers to as “the mandatory date to take off the uniform.”
Only time will tell if Chief Warrant Officer 5 Paula Prosser will still be working for the military she loves in a few years - in uniform or not.
She may seem like a permanent fixture in the Missouri National Guard, but she’s confident other females will rise to take her place and grow into the leadership positions she herself has helped to forge.
| Date Taken: | 12.17.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.26.2015 11:52 |
| Story ID: | 185348 |
| Location: | JEFFERSON CITY, MO, US |
| Web Views: | 599 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, A quiet professional 41 years in the making, by SGT Samanatha Whitehead, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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