RADFORD, Va. (WFXR) — In the more than 80-year history of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Lieutenant Colonel Adrien Humphreys was installed as commander of the plant last June.
Humphreys is the first African-American female to take command of the plant.

“This is an incredible opportunity, you know I was excited. I joined the military to experience new challenges. I didn’t want any two jobs to be the same. I didn’t want any two duty stations to be the same,” said Humphreys.

Humphreys’ road to the Radford Army Ammunition Plant started when she joined the Army in 1998. She was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands while getting her college education at the University of Akron, earning numerous master’s and doctorate degrees. Humphreys’s inspiration to join the Army came while she was in college.

“I was getting ready to graduate and I looked and saw this video of it saying “Be All You Can Be” in joining the United States Army and I recognized it right away as an opportunity for me to actually challenge myself and to push the boundaries and the possibilities,” said Humphreys.

Humphreys’s leadership skills are not only at the military level but at the college level as she was a professor of military science at Kent State, Youngstown State, and Mount Union. For Humphreys, her military service and education go hand in hand.

“It pushes the military and educational challenges because ultimately it focuses on personal and professional growth,” said Humphreys.

While commanding the Radford Army Ammunition Plant this will be the first time she will lead all civilians. Even when she decides when it is time for her to retire from the Army, she wants to give back in so many ways.

“Everything that has been poured into me, I am ready to pour it back into the next generation of military leaders and the next generation of civilian leaders that work with me or the opportunity to work with and to just pay it forward,” said Humphreys.

Lieutenant Colonel Humphreys’s command tour at Radford is for two years. She said one of her goals is to command a unit in a deployed environment.