Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Becky Halstead will speak on Cleveland Chiropractic College’s Overland Park campus at 9 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22. The first female graduate of West Point to attain the rank of general, Halstead led troops into battle in Operation Iraqi Freedom. She is a strong supporter of chiropractic, and her visit is sponsored by the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.
Halstead is a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and achieved an historic milestone by being the first female graduate of West Point to be promoted to general officer. She was the senior commanding general for logistics in Iraq, and was the first female in U.S. history to command in combat at the strategic level. She was responsible for leading over 200 multi-disciplined units located across 55 different bases, providing supply, maintenance, transportation and distribution support to over 250,000 personnel serving in Iraq.
Halstead served 27 years in the Army and retired as a general officer in 2007. She culminated her career as the first female chief of ordnance and commanding general of the Army’s Ordnance Center and Schools, where she was responsible for leadership development and institutional training for the second largest branch in the Army with more than 100,000 members of the Ordnance Corps.
After being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Halstead was forced to retire from the military and was placed on 16 different daily medications for the pain. The medication provided little relief, and she went to see a doctor of chiropractic. Due to her chiropractic treatment Halstead is currently medication free and a proud chiropractic advocate and patient.