ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Illinois — A First Army senior noncommissioned officer received her appointment to command sergeant major in a ceremony on June 5 in First Army headquarters.

Command Sgt. Maj. Kanisha L. Lamothe, of Cassopolis, serves as the First Army Secretary of the General Staff sergeant major. Her next assignment will be as the senior enlisted Soldier for Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 25th Infantry Division, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. This is a command sergeant major positon, necessitating that Lamothe be appointed to the CSM rank.

Lamothe joined the Army in 1996, is a member of the exclusive Sergeant Audie Murphy Club and is a recipient of the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara and the Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates Bronze Medal.

Additionally, First Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, presented Lamothe with the Meritorious Service Medal in the ceremony, and he spoke about her contributions and abilities.

“This is a bittersweet moment for us,” he said. “While First Army loses a superior NCO, Command Sgt. Maj. Lamothe will assume her new duties as the command sergeant major for Headquarters and Headquarters, 25th Infantry Division. She will be the only female key leader in the entire division. She has done yeoman’s work since her arrival. In her short tenure here, she has helped dramatically improve our SGS administrative functional capabilities. Command Sgt. Maj. Lamothe, what can I say other than ‘Job well done.’ Our loss is the 25^th Infantry Division’s magnificent gain.”

First Army Command Sgt. Maj. Sam K. Young noted how few soldiers attain Lamothe’s rank.

“Less than half of one percent get selected for command sergeant major,” he said. “I asked her last year if she had competed for CSM, and she said she did, and I said, ‘That means I’m going to lose you.’ If you look at her biography, it’s evident she was going to get selected.”

Lamothe called the day a dream come true.

“Since the day that I came in the military, this is the day that I dreamed of, to be a command sergeant major,” she said. “Every day I tried very hard to get to the point where this could be an opportunity for me.”