Photo By Michel Sauret | Brig. Gen. Irene Zoppi, U.S. Army Reserve deputy commanding general for the 200th...... read more read more
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FORT MEADE, Md. – They called her “Ramba” in Puerto Rico – the female version of Rambo.
Back in 1987, Irene Miller was an ROTC cadet. Physical fitness and obstacle courses were a breeze to her. That’s because cadet Miller ran everywhere.
“I lived in the countryside of Puerto Rico … Often my car had a flat tire, and I had to get to physical conditioning, and I’d already been running from afar,” said Irene, who now goes by her married name, Zoppi.
She would run from one bus stop to another, trying to catch the “guagua” in time for her physical training sessions. The nickname of “Ramba” was originally given by an ROTC instructor, a U.S. Army Ranger, but it stuck ever since.
Thirty years later, Zoppi still hasn’t slowed down. If anything, she’s picked up life momentum and speed. Now, instead of being nicknamed after a jungle warrior movie star, Zoppi carries a star of her own: She was promoted to the rank of brigadier general within the U.S. Army Reserve during a ceremony this week at Fort Meade. She’s now the newly appointed deputy commanding general for the 200th Military Police Command, the largest military police organization in the Department of Defense.
During her ceremony, the room was packed with friends and family members who had travelled from all over, even from Puerto Rico and Iraq, to attend the promotion.
“One of the first things you notice about Irene Zoppi is her energy and her presence. You don’t have to plug her in or recharge her to get energy out of her,” said one guest speaker and mentor, Maj. Gen. Luis Visot, the former chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Reserve, who is now retired.
At one point during his speech, Visot invited guests from the audience to come up to the microphone. Each of them said how they admired Zoppi’s compassion for people and her drive.
“For those who don’t know General Zoppi, she’s a very caring leader. A leader that Soldiers can look up to, and not only meet mission, but set their attitudes and their altitudes off of her,” said Sgt. Maj. Maneasseaha Bartimus, now the personnel sergeant major for the Military Intelligence Readiness Command, located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
“She is a very caring leader, but she also is smart. She knows what it takes to be strategic. She knows what … is required to ensure that mission is met, that Soldiers are ready to deploy,” said Bartimus.
Zoppi credits these character traits to her Puerto Rican heritage.
“All my life (before the military) I lived in Puerto Rico … My culture is very warm and caring. We’re very loving. That’s part of who I am. And that’s how I became very successful in the military, because nurturing and caring and supporting (Soldiers) is the best way to go as a leader,” said Zoppi, who frequently refers to herself as a “servant leader.”
On the civilian side, Dr. Zoppi holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Maryland and is a program director for the National Intelligence University, which is run by the National Security Agency. She’s been involved in education ever since she left active duty as a captain in 1995 to join the Army Reserve. She became a public school teacher, and has since taught at various universities. She is now a member of the Maryland State Board of Education. On that board, she specializes in helping military families and minority students.
She understands well the need of helping students in college. In addition to being an ROTC cadet, Zoppi worked four jobs to help pay for her education at the University of Puerto Rico. She worked in a department store, she cleaned, was an English tutor and was a professional scuba diver. She would dive for the coastal marine department to collect ocean sediments for study.
“I’m kind of a fish, and I would go down, go scuba diving, get the specimen. Often I would have to go really early in the morning … It was a lot of fun. It feels like Jacque Cousteau with no money. As long as someone is giving you the tank, because that costs a lot of money,” she said jokingly.
She’s also bashful about her work as an English tutor while in college. In reality, she admits, she didn’t speak any English at the time. The only reason she received a grant and a tutor position was because of her last name, Miller, and because her father – who was from Indiana – owned the Encyclopedia Brittanica in English. Zoppi would use the encyclopedia in her tutoring. She knew how to read it, but didn’t really know how to pronounce anything.
So when Zoppi’s military career took her from Puerto Rico to the U.S., then to Germany, deployed to the Persian Gulf War, and then back to the U.S., she describes it as a multicultural shock.
“If you know about culture and acculturation, you come to the United States, and it’s one culture. Then the military has another culture. Then you go to Europe. Then you go to war, another culture,” said Zoppi, who now resides in central Maryland.
Through it all, Zoppi maintained her Puerto Rican warmth and passion, which some interpreted as weakness in the military.
“I think that was very difficult, that when you are passionate, people might translate it as emotional. Or when you have an accent, people think that you’re not smart,” she said.
In the last three decades, however, she has seen the military’s mindset and attitude shift and embrace – rather than isolate – different cultural backgrounds. She’s grateful that in her 32-year military career (she originally enlisted as a private in 1985 before being commissioned) she hasn’t had to abandon her heritage for the sake of military service.
“I’m proud to be from Puerto Rico, because it’s home. Its language becomes part of your soul, your spirit … I’m a product of a hard working people. I’m a product of a lack of not having. I’m a product to want to dream to become the best … Everybody who is from Puerto Rico who experiences that, we look at each other and we don’t give up. Wherever you go, you will see Puerto Ricans bringing their flag, their music, their guitar, and we will be playing and singing because that’s part of our soul. We are proud to be Americans and we are proud to serve, and we believe in the American values,” she said.
She’s also grateful of having reached this rank as a woman, because of the equal opportunities the military offers today unlike ever before.
“We’re all Soldiers. It’s not about being a woman or not. It’s about having the same opportunities as our counterparts who are male Soldiers to become who we want to become,” said Zoppi.
In fact, in her latest position, Zoppi isn’t the only female general officer in charge of the military police command. She will be working for Maj. Gen. Marion Garcia, who has been in command of the 200th for more than a year. Before Zoppi took the position, the previous deputy commanding general was also a woman: Brig. Gen. Kelly Wakefield.
“When I was coming to the ranks as a lieutenant, I never saw that. I never had a female mentor. And I never thought I could become (a general). It’s important that the Army is showing all of these diverse (opportunities) … It’s not about gender difference. It’s about how we are all Soldiers, and grooming Soldiers that have the potential to become the best at their higher position to make our Army better,” she said.
| Date Taken: | 08.29.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.29.2017 17:14 |
| Story ID: | 246450 |
| Location: | FORT MEADE, MD, US |
| Hometown: | CROFTON, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 325 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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