david cameron at the british house of commons. then the abc news candidates debate from [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> this week: "q&a," major- general marsha anderson discusses their rank as the highest ranking female african- american general in the united states army. >> major general marsha anderson, marcia, you were shot? >> i was kind of a book warm in school and was much happier reading -- you were shy?

i hated to be called on in class. i knew the answer, but i was not the one to be popping up to answer the teacher, and unfortunately, when you are one of the smartest kids in the class, and the teacher wants someone to answer, you get called on, but my palms were always sweaty. i would get physically ill when i had to answer questions in class or stand up and read a book report. of course, over time, that has changed, and the military is a big part of the reason that changed it is you are compelled to give motivational talks to soldiers, and you have to put that all aside and either at some point learn how to do it or kind of gut your way through it.

>> you did a speech that i want to run 30 seconds of that share issue in your professional uniforms and making a presentation. >> ok. my parents, my father, was a korean war veteran, and what he really wanted to do when he was serving in the korean war was to work with planes. of whether it was to fly the planes or work on the crews, but because of the limited opportunities at the time, he was a truck driver. my mother was one of the first young women to integrate catholic high schools in st. louis, missouri. she was a clerical worker. it >> the first woman to integrate the catholic high schools in st. louis. how did she do that? >> there was a group of four young women, is my understanding, and she was one of the four that entered the the

high school in st. louis, missouri, in, i think it was 1952, if i remember correctly, and the reason i even knew this was my eighth grade teacher told me that she remembered my mother as one of those young women, and my mother apparently was a pretty good intramural basketball player. she was about 4 feet nothing, and she never mentioned it to me about doing sports, so it was kind of neat to have my teacher talk to me about that. my mother never talked to me about that experience though. all ever knew is that she did it, that she graduated from the high-school, and so did i.. >> what did you ask your mother about the integration issue? >> not very much. she was always kind of matter of fact about those kinds of things. it was something that she had to do. she certainly benefited, i

think, from the experience, because she instilled in my brother and i, well, this is what you have to do. get yourself together. collect yourself and just drive on and get it done. she never talked about the expectations she had for us, but we always knew they were high. we grew up with lots of magazines in the house. we went to the library every saturday to take out books. i love to read, so for me, that was a treat, going to the libraries on saturdays. we did not sit around and talk about this a lot. it was simply you were going to get good grades in school. you were going to excel at whenever you set your mind to do. i joined a soft ball and played volleyball in grade school. i was never any good at it, but her expectation is that you give 110% whatever it is. >> at a high school, you also

went there. >> i did. >> where is it, and why was there even segregation in the school back then? >> i am really not sure. maybe it was something that families did not consider, or as an option. i do not know. that is born in the conversation i should have had with my grandmother and grandfather, and i never had that one either, and i regret that. as far as i know, there was nothing but you could not go to school there. i really do not know. >> you talked about your father, and you said that he wanted to do more than he did, and he was driving a truck. he ended up being in the korean war. a live? >> my mother passed away while i was in graduate school, and my father lives in wisconsin. >> explain what you're talking about when he was able to do more. >> we were talking, and just to

provide some context, i did not even know he had served until i was promoted to colonel, and he was at my ceremony, and he began to talk about it, and he then pulled out his discharge certificate and put it on the wall. over time, since then, we have had in frequent conversations about his service. he did not actually deploy, but he stayed stateside, and he drove trucks. he drove officers. kind of how the conversation got started is he told me one of his best jobs was driving a car when he was serving. but you could tell he had other aspirations, but as i say, that is kind of where he ended up. >> what did both parents end up doing for their lives? >> my mother was a clerical worker. >> where? >> in the hospital in east st. louis, illinois. my grandmother.

my mother began working at a salvage company as office help. my grandmother told me when she was older that one of her dreams as a young girl was to go to nursing school, but she could not afford to. there just was not any money to send her to nursing school in the family. so the opportunities i have had with being in the military, having the opportunity just did not exist when they were all growing up. >> you are an undergraduate of creighton, and a law degree from rutgers. >> yes. in order to advance and get promoted. i have a master's from the army war college in carlisle, pennsylvania. >> in preparation for this interview, i started reading

about the korean war. there was a mention of harry truman desegregating the services. i found his executive order july 26, 1948, and the first paragraph of and, i am going to read it -- "it is hereby the order of the precedent there should be equal opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin. this shall be put in effect as quickly as possible, with regard to the time needed for necessary changes without impairing the efficiency or morale," and when you read on, the service was not really desegregated until 1954, after the korean war was over. have you steadied to that? >> that is something i was not aware of, and that brings back some thought that my father did share or three during the period.

he described one event where they were having difficulty getting access to a facility on one installations you was servicing, and he complained about it to one of the colonel's he drove, and there was an assembly or town hall by the post commander, and he basically said, "this is not that we do business. the soldiers that you are serving with are to receive equal treatment," and he said things got better after that. i think that is an example of how the military does a lot of things. we are given a directive that the leadership, they take it to heart, and they make sure that the soldiers understand that they supported fully, and that is passed down the line, and then they make it happen. he said things got a lot better after that town hall. i do not think it was called a town hall, but it was an

assembly where they made it clear that we're going to abide by the executive order in every way possible. >> you are in the spotlight a bit now for being the first major general, a female, african american in the history of the u.s. army. have you gotten tired of telling the story? >> no, i have not, but maybe it is still early. i in the first time i realized this about was the situation, i was overwhelmed, but the more i thought about it, i thought this is a great opportunity. there certainly is a responsibility with it, but i think there is an opportunity for people to take a different look of the military, have a different perception of who we are, what we look like, what we do, who is in the military. i know it has resonated a lot with young women. i have got a lot of emails and messages and letters, and i think it just shows how our

armed forces have consistently led the way in terms of providing opportunities and rewarding people who work hard. >> you are in the u.s. army reserve. what is the difference between being in the regular army or the reserve? >> when you are in the citizen army, you are a full-time citizen and a part-time soldier. since 9/11 and even before iraq, the part-time really was not part time, because the advent of technology. i am almost in a constant contact with what is going on. people say, "how do you manage this?" and say that you care about your child soccer career, you become a coach or an assistant coach, and you find a way to work that into your schedule. it is very much the same for

people who serve in the reserve. it is something i think that we are very passionate about. we care about our country, and we feel there is a contribution to make, so you fitted in with your full-time civilian career. >> what is your full-time civilian job? >> i am a clerk of the court in wisconsin. we cover many counties, and i have a staff, and operational staff that manages the caseload. i have two bankruptcy judges that i work for, and it is one of the greatest jobs in the world apart from this one, i think. >> how long have you done that? >> i have been with a federal court system for about 18 or 19 years, often on. i worked at different levels. i practiced law for about 10 years but decided i really liked the administrative side of the law. i like working with people. i get to do a lot more of that

in my current position, and bankruptcy is great because it gives people a fresh start. >> a much of your time is spent in military duties? >> since i came off of active duty at fort knox, i will say that i'm trying to keep it to around five days a month, and that is that before i wake up in the morning, i am looking at my blackberry. in one month's time, i try to get things done, after hours at work. it is a balance. >> so where do you spend your time now? do you still live in madison? >> i do live outside madison. and i am in and out of washington, d.c., at this time. >> your time? >> i stay in touch with my civilian job. i have a blackberry with them,

too. whenever i have a moment, i will check in and see what is going on. i have a great staff at the bankruptcy court. they know if there is a huge emergency that they really need me to be involved in, they are capable of handling it themselves. >> of the reserve, how many of them spend five days per month in the service work? >> i would say, depending on the level and what your job is, i mean, this is just a wild guess, not knowing porcelain. i would say approximately 25% of us could look at their schedule and say, yes, i spend about that much time doing things over the course of a month for the army reserve. >> what is your job in the army reserve? >> i am the deputy chief of the army reserve, and i can be called up with very short notice and placed on active duty.

i am not a traditional reservist in the sense that i go to a location and have a weekend meeting with other soldiers at a fixed location, and i also have a training obligation, but my time is pretty flexible sense of easily work for the chief of army reserve, and that is an organization located at the pentagon and also at fort bragg. i will put my time if i need to between those locations and work on some projects, but that is pretty much what i am doing right now. >> how long did you serve on active duty? >> i was at fort knox for one year, that was my most recent time on duty, but the main project that i will be working on for the general is to try to take what we are calling the continuum of service and create

policies and processes that will make that a reality, and what we are really talking about there is trying to figure out a way to allow soldiers to move seamlessly between civilian life and active duty depending on where they are in their personal and career life cycle. right now, it is very to the call to make that transition from active duty, if you want to come in continue to serve in the reserve, and then move back again because of a lot of the policies and laws and regulations that we currently have in place. >> how much does it help you that you have a federal -- a federal job? is it easier to move back and forth because of that, versus working at an engineering plant? >> a lot of the ability to be flexible and to serve a i think depends on an employee relationship with the employer. there are federal laws and regulations in place to protect

your job if you have to go on active duty, but i think it is important for everybody, employee and employer to keep open lines of communication, to talk realistically about what your service first means to you and what your job in the reserves and tails, in terms of the amount of time you may have to devote to it, and then i think it makes it that much easier for you to make that transition when you have to. there are some barriers to that. we did not have an opportunity after 9/11, we did not have the luxury after 9/11, to take a look at the processes and make changes. that has been lagging. our systems do not talk to each other, so it is very to the call to move somebody from traditional reserve status on to active status. >> you have been the army reserve from 1976. >> 9.

>> 1979. >> you were in the rotc act -- at creighton. why would that be a credit in the science world? >> i do not know why that was at creighton. you have a certain number of basic courses that you have to fill, and i had a part-time job because i was working my way through school. for some reason, the reserve officer training corps was counted as a science credit at creighton, and i was able to fill that basic requirement that way. >> in your early life and when you are training, would we ever see major general marcia anderson down in the mud? >> not at this point in my

career in the army. >> in the beginning, did you have to go through basic training? but as a cadet, you have to go through a form of it. >> do they treat women differently? >> no, you did all of the training exercises. you had to be as physically fit as your male counterparts are, and that continues today, i think even more so. as we have seen, women are much more involved. even though people have a sense that there is a frontline, there is really not a frontline anymore, so you need to be a soldier, period, to survive. >> there is a statistic, 40% of army reserve soldiers are minorities, something like 25%, 26%. 25% are women, and out of the 6136 african-american officers

in army reserve, maybe it is just any officer, 2400 some are women. why so many women in the reserves? >> number one, i think it is the mission of the army reserve. we have a lot of medical units, units that are not combat-type units. we only have one infantry battalion in the army reserve, so the other, the mission is logistics. we have, as i said, medical units, civil affairs, which involves a special skill set for civil affairs, a unique skill set, so i think what we do is attractive to females, and two, it is a welcome environment. >> go back to what we were talking to earlier. you send an important thing in

your life was watching your mother and grandmother working with a car salesman. >> i was in grade school, probably second, third, or fourth grade, early 1960's, back in illinois, and we needed a new car, and my grandmother near the vice president of the bank, and we had a good relationship and a good banking relationship, i am sure, and i went to school with their son, and they went to the bank, and they got preapproved. they knew how much they wanted to spend on the car, and they knew what they could afford, so we went to the dealership, and we were running around, and they walked on the showroom floor and ignored them, and so they finally got a salesman who reluctantly came over, and they said, "we are interested in

buying a car," and there still was not that much interest, and i was observing this. my mother or i do not remember him got a letter that said they were preapproved from the bank from one of the major banks in town, and once they realized that, their whole attitude change, but i took away from that that it is important to be prepared, and they had to be assertive to get the sales person's attention and interest, and they also knew what they wanted. they were not born to be talked into buying more than they could afford, so i learned a lot of lessons from that experience. >> how much of that was raised related in your opinion? >> at that time, east st. louis, about 98% black, but i think the myth is a lot different. i think there was some of that involved, but i think it was gender related, too. >> east st. louis said lost a

ton of population over the years. how long did you live there? >> it was from about when i was 8 years old, and i lived there through high school. my grandmother lived there until she passed away the last few years. along the way, i saw it change from a fairly diversity, although not necessarily balance in terms of the government and jobs, to one that is about 98% african-american today, and in that time, of course, a lot of businesses left. the main street that used to be a bustling place on a saturday, i think it is mostly boarded up now. there is very little commercial activity there anymore. at one point, there is a study done and said about 75% or more of the population is on some form of public assistance. it is prime real estate, i think, for development, but i

think it is going to take some time for it to turn around and for people to recognize is right across the river from st. louis and has enormous potential but i think is on tap. >> when you were living in east st. louis, ill., you went to the catholic high school in st. louis. >> yes. >> how did that work? you went to creighton. why did you follow the catholic school prick >> my parents were methodist, and they were living in east st. louis, and they wanted the best education they could possibly get for their children, and it was in the catholic schools, so they converted, so all of their kids, mother included, went to catholic schools after that, said that was what my mother thought was the best path, she made sure that we were enrolled in catholic schools. as i said, i ended up finishing school where she went to high

school. i have an uncle who is eight jesuits, so it is natural and i would attend a jesuit school. i just felt more comfortable going someplace, and that point, creighton was about 3000 students. it was comfortable, easy to get to from st. louis. >> going back to the fact that you grew up being shy, when did you begin to get rid of that? >> when i was a cadet in the rotc, because you are put into leadership roles early, and when you go to your advanced course between your junior and senior year, i went to fort lewis, about a 6-3 period, and you are rotated in various leadership roles, so you were going to be the platoon sergeant for the day, and you're going to be responsible for getting our

people from point a to point b all day long and being accountable for them, and keeping a schedule, so you have to stand up in the front of the room and assert yourself and gain control over that group and capture their attention, so you are just compelled to. >> in your speech -- but the way, what was the crowd you were speaking to back in early november, sponsored by "time" magazine and aarp -- what were you there to talk about? >> to talk about how the american dream for me was very real and to talk to some of the young people in the audience about what it took to reach this point in my life, and my real believed that that opportunity still exists for our young people. it is a little bit harder these days, but i think we can still have people have dreams and goals, and we have ways for them to achieve those dreams and goals.

>> i want to run a clip about you speaking about running up in east st. louis. >> 75% of the population was in some form -- on some form of public assistance. one-third of the families subsist on less than seven $500 per year. even today, the population there, the median income is less than $11,000. it was once described as percentage- a large of the population is african- american. that is where i grew up. my mother scraped together money to send us to catholics school. she patched our pants, because we cannot afford news one, and she made it so that we could have magazines at home, like " time," and "ebony" and "jet."

>> he made mention of those. >> she wanted to mention the we saw african americans doing other things, and as magazines provide information on business leaders, entertainment, sports, so we knew that people were doing things in our community that they were not necessarily doing in east st. louis, so we would have examples and role models. >> what did she do to scrape together the tuition money? i note that right about now is 87 under dollars. what about that? >> it was a couple hundred dollars. >> how did she find the money? >> i honestly do not know. my mother and my grandmother were great savers. they researched ways to live as frugally as we possibly could, but i never felt deprived. my mother would find money to take us to cultural events. i got to hear an african-

american pianist with the st. louis symphony. we got tickets to go see things like that. so i do not know where she founded, but she did. >> you said that the median income in east st. louis, missouri, is a $11,000. >> yes, i did a little bit of research on the internet, and that is what i came up with. >> how can you live on $11,000 per year? >> i do not know. i can say is a depressed area, so the rents are not that much, but they are not that good, either, but i really do not know how people do it, i really do not. >> homage to you feel the need to talk to a younger african- americans because of what you achieved and tell them how to do the same thing you have done? >> i think they need to region a lot of kids do not want to talk to their guidance counselors in schools. i know i did not. i did not think they were very

helpful. but there are a lot of scholarships out there and opportunities like the military that give you a full education if you want to go on to college. we need to take better advantage of trade schools at community colleges. there are lots of untapped resources out there, and if they would just go talk to their teachers or their guidance counselors or someone they trust, give them some ideas, because they see the people around them and maybe think that maybe this is all that there is to live, but i think they need to take advantage of their resources that are available. >> were your parents split to prove where they divorced when you were young? >> my parents were divorced by the time i think i was a toddler, and my brother was just born, so that was the late 1950's. >> so your mother and grandmother raised you. >> they did. >> there are a lot of examples that we see, and when people

talk about specifically what was different about your life, that you think got you where you are? >> i think it was just that expectation, even the unspoken expectation, a given that i was born to go to college. there was never a question of that. nobody had a real strategic plan on how that was going to happen, but they were determined that was born to be my reality. >> was that mom and grandmother both? >> mom and grandmother both. we always talked about college. that was one of the conversations we were having. what you need to do, and you have to get good grades in school it. and nowadays it would have done a lot more research about it. they may have said, that is very difficult to do, but we're going to figure of a way to do it, and we will help you. >> what kind of student were you? >> i was a pretty good student. i loved school. i thought the best day was one

of all of my books for the first day of school, and i would start reading that first day even before classes started. i was always curious. i love the learning about other places and new things. the one thing i hate it was about math. i never quite understood why i needed to learn all that algebra and stuff, but i loved history and english, just enjoyed it. >> why do you think you loved it, and, again, what would you say to others? there are a lot of kids out there who do not have two parents and the home, and do not even have one parent paying attention to them. >> i loved reading, because it was like a movie. when i was reading a book, it was like i had my own personal movie. i would learn words and learn about different places. things i could travel to as an adult. it opens up new vistas, new ideas.

just opportunities. >> why did you pick creighton, and what did you major in? >> as i said, uncle was there. a lot of professors there were people that were there when he was in seminary, said they were like my uncles. it was not such a big school where i would feel lost or overwhelmed. it had a great reputation and had a good law program because i was interested in going to law school. i was curious about history. i think history and politics kind of interwoven, so those were two areas of interest for me, so that is pretty much why i chose creighton. >> and moscow, did that come before or after you did your rotc? >> one of my classmates was

already doing it, so i talked to him about his experience. i then went to work for a corporation after college for a couple of years while still working in my army reserve obligation, and then about two years after working for that corporation, i decided it was time to go to law school. >> why rutgers? >> well, once again, i did not have a lot of thought involved in something. i had never seen the ocean, but they also had a good reputation. they had a good clinical program and a reputation as a good academic institution, and as a state university, it was also less expensive. but i got a lot of bang for my buck for working at the university. >> where did you meet your husband? >> in a receiving line for a

colleague of mine, a mentor, i should say, who had been promoted to brigadier general, and we met in the receiving line at that event. >> where? >> milwaukee, wisconsin. >> how long have you been married? >> 11 years. this is the second marriage for both of us. i am a grandmother as of august, and he is my best friend. he was in the reserve at one point. he got out a long time ago. he is my sounding board. he calms me down when i get excited about things, and he is a really good guy. >> go back in your military career were in your job as clerked -- clerk, and name some people who said, "i want to help her," and helped him move to the

next rung. >> i think it would have been when i was a major. my battalion commander at the time, my brigade commander at the time, i am having a senior moment. i can remember his name. but i marched into him and said that i wanted to be a company commander. i wanted to know that there was -- i knew there was an opening coming available, so he gave me that chance. there were some people who were resisting that. not my fellow captains, but some of the older officers who had never had a female company commander in a basic training unit, and i applied myself and really tried new ways to help get my drill sergeants ready for our mission, and after that, it just kind of snowballed. i had a great mentor in a brigadier general retired who lives in connecticut, and he was

a great guy. he kind of encouraged me to think about getting my military education done and maybe aiming for the war college. i did not even know what the war college was. he had to explain this to me. another was the officer his promotion i attended when i met famous in the receiving line. but when i meant amos. -- when i met amos. >> what's the difference between being a commissioned officer and a noncommissioned, sir? >> a commission officer, you work your way up. noncommissioned ulcers in list for eastern period of time, and commissioned officers are indefinite until we resign. soldiers sign a contract to serve four different periods of time, four, six, indefinite.

we like to call our enlisted soldiers in the army, they are the backbone of the army, because they are the ones to get things done. >> but the relationship between enlisted person and an officer is what? what do you call each other? >> whatever your rank is. sergeant, whatever their rank is. >> do you call them by their last name? >> sergeant jones. >> they are not about to call me anderson. >> they will not call me anderson. they will call you by your rank. a manager, not an koyie supervisor relationship generally. but also colleagues. because nco's are the ones that execute officers plan and manage

in resources. >> huson its first? >> and noncommissioned officer or someone who is janet -- someone here is lower in rank. did not -- >> that may have been two years ago. we have higher educated soldiers, period, and a lot of our soldiers who are enlisting now as private already have their degrees, and while they are in the service, a lot of them have an opportunity to pursue and get their college degree and go on and get workr's and ph.d.'s, and i with noncommissioned officers that have ph.d.'s, and i think that is one of the reasons we have the best army in the world. >> why would they rather do that and be an officer? >> well, let said they work for

a living in officers do not. it is an opportunity, as we said, to execute and work in your specialty, because once you reach a certain point as an officer, you are really more of a manager. you are not getting out there with the soldiers. you are more directing so the soldiers can get their job done, so you do not get to play and hang out with the troops as much. >> all right, you are a major general. you can become a eighth lieutenant general and an four- star general? >> in the army reserves, there is only one lieutenant-general, my boss, and i am perfectly content to do my job as a major general, and that is all i am looking at right now, is that job. >> ok, let's say your having another conversation with another woman, and she a second lieutenant, and she comes to you

and says, and there is no cameras around, "tell me what i am going to be faced with as a woman as an officer that if i were a man, i would not seek?" what tips would you give? >> i think that question, in 1979, i think there would have been a lot of differences. now in 2011, i will tell you what they really want from you is, one, they can trust you, that you're going to take care of them. whenever the mission, you will make sure that you take care of your soldiers, that you are a professional. that you are not just competent, that you are good at your job, and i think that is really all anybody wants from their supervisor or manager. i am working for someone who cares about me but is also good at their job, and i always tell

people, do not go for the minimum, because sometimes you will miss the mark. and that is true whether you're taking an army physical fitness test or someone has given you a task or a project. do not shoot for the c work. you have got to shoot for the a work. >> what has been the toughest situation that you have? >> talking about trust, and i was given a company command for the basic trading company -- >> where was this? >> the unit was located in lodi, new jersey, and i walked in there the first day to meet my drill sergeants, and they were all male, and there was me and my first sergeant, and the look on their faces was sort of like we got the female captain, and i

kind of knew that i needed to gain their trust. i knew the business. i was enthusiastic about training soldiers, takings soldiers off of the street, take the citizens of of the street and turning them on -- turning them into soldiers, and i respect them as individuals. one of my commanders said, which is to come before there is a warfighter, there is a trainer, and that is true. to become a general. what end of the weapon and the bullet comes out of, and they do it in a very short period of time. >> how long did it take you to feel that they trusted you? >> i would say a couple of months, but it was a gradual process. i have never been one to say,

"we have always done it this way, so i will do it this way." one of the things we had to do was rehearse for the instruction, and the typical practice is that someone would expand at the room, and the commander in the first sergeant would do the class. i got a video camera, and i said i'm going to do it differently. i'm going to videotape you, and all of us are going to critique you. they got a kick out of doing that. but they were also able to see more areas to improve. they kind of looked at me and a lot differently after that. they thought that she had a different way of doing business, but she cared about us being instructors. >> what kind of money can somebody in the reserve make in a year? i know it varies from private firms class to general, but what can you take away >> well, for

example, a weekend meeting or battle assembly on a saturday or sunday for a member of the army reserves is the equivalent of four days' pay for an active duty soldiers. so close to in five-day workweek, and then the statutory training requirement per year 12 or 14 days, which is full time, so that is two weeks right there. so it is hard for me to give the exact dollar figure, but if people think about their own job, how much they make in a week, and then if you have two- weeks pay. >> if you do 52 weekends -- what other benefits? do you have health benefits? >> you do have access to tricare, which is a wonderful benefit. people pay a minimum for a

family of four compared to if they were trying to get the insurance on their own, and then you have access to the regular military regular -- the regular medical providers. that has been a great benefit to people in the army reserve. >> so i am 20 years old, and i join the service, and i want to go to college. do i get any financial help? >> you have access to tuition benefits. whenever you are still on active duty, you can use the gi bill benefits. >> let's say i am a weekend warrior, as they say, and i am in the reserve. , college would you pay? >> i would have to refer you to somebody who is an expert to provide you with that. i already have my degree. >> but is it enough to provide a great value to you? >> absolutely.

>> can you have your whole education paid for? >> i would have to refer you to someone, but there are substantial benefits. >> wow is recruiting these days? >> we are making our mission. in fact, we met our mission early. i think across the army really. >> how much does and says to do -- how much does that have to do with the economy? >> i am not a recruiter, but that would have to play a role. one of the duties of explaining the benefits, i think that has resonated with a lot of people, that you can learn a lot of skills in the army reserve that you will not necessarily gain in the private sector. >> let's go back to the question i asked you about a woman sitting in front of you saying, "give us a advice about a woman

in the army. let's say a young african- american woman. it is there any difference in the way you would advise them on the way they are going to be treated? >> the military really leads the way in terms of providing opportunities for people, being an organization that welcomes and values diversity and leverages that diversity. >> is there any evidence that integration is not working in the military. >> not that i can see, no. >> so if it is working in the military, then why is it not working in society at large, or is it? >> i do not know. i cannot explain that. maybe it is the culture in the military. we're going to be the best military in the world, so we have to leverage our assets. more fighting is a serious business. if you go in with the same point

of view and the same people, you are not going to get the best results, so maybe it is the urgency of what we do and the seriousness of what we do that has compelled us to an braise it may be quicker than some other sectors have, i do not know. >> you told a story somewhere about driving in your car and listening to oral histories in which you heard a granddaughter interview a grandfather, and he had some recommendations for her. what were the circumstances? why were you listening to it, and what was the message you got out of it? >> i believe it was the story piece that they sometimes do on npr, and that kind resonated with me because he was giving her some lessons on life, and, one, she was interested in what he had to say. i do not know how many people sit down with their grandparents and talk about

their experience in life. his advice was a basic and simple. work hard, keep her family close. >> you said that he told her to have courage. >> yes. >> what does that mean? >> gma? to me, it means not being afraid to try things that might be able the scary for europe -- for you, kind of like when i joined the rotc. it was unfamiliar territory. not to be afraid to speak up. throughout my military career, i have kind of prided myself in not being afraid to say what i thought, because one, the worst thing to do is let a senior leader head down the wrong road if you are thinking in your mind, you know, sir, ma'am, maybe we ought to take another look at this from this perspective, because people's lives to be at stake, or we have

an obligation or a duty to be good stewards of the resources that the public interests of sweat, so you sometimes have to be courageous in a meeting, when everyone else's head is going up and down, and you have a different perspective, and you have to have the courage to say that. >> what has been the toughest part of all of this? listening to utah, i would say, this has been easy. marcia has just waltzed through this. -- were listening to you, i would say this has been easy. >> i had to kind of make up my own playbook as i went along. one thing i learned to do was to be a good observer of people, protect repeople who did certain things well, to try to figure out how they did it. so you kind of have to pick up

those subtle cues, and a thick oftentimes that the young people are on the internet, but sometimes use it in a meeting and listen. definitely as a senior leader, you do more listening than talking. i would do that as i went along, and i would study people who are successful. i would read biographies and kind of learn lessons from what they did and also failures. >> do you have a favorite person that you have read about? >> abraham lincoln, when he hired an appointed a lot of people who were actually his adversaries. pretty vocal adversaries at-bat, because he wanted as different points of view in the room, and he wanted as different points of rome -- view to counsel and

advise him. i admired that. one to have this people do not have your best interest at heart, but the courage to see get people who are going to disagree with you, maybe ideologically or in very basic ways. >> all right, what is the difference in how people treat you when you have your two stars on, your uniform on, or when you are a civilian? >> bobcats that is when my husband is really good. he reminds me that i am not a general 1 i am at home. people do a lot of things for you when you're at this rank to try to free you up to do the thinking you need to do to get the work done that you need to do. so you get a lot of assistance to get through your day, which i am really appreciate. i hope they are not afraid of me. i try to remind them that i am just like them. i put my pants on one leg at a time in the morning and have the

same kind of concerns about getting through my day. >> when do people know you are not happy? >> i do not know. i will tell them. i am not a yowler. i am not a screamer -- i am not a yeller. if i have asked them to do something and they have not met the market, or they give me the answer that they think i want to hear, i will tell them. >> give us an example. >> there was one officer that i worked for who did not have a high regard, i think, of women in general, and this was many years ago, and would dismiss me when we had meetings, and i would have an idea, or i had a thought about the course of

action we might want to take, so he was a bit dismissive, but i kept plugging away. eventually, something is going to get through. i guess i am kind of hard headed that way. >> did you go to a higher rank to beat him? >> he got out long before i did. i would just put it that way. >> so when you are back home, you live where? >> in the madison, wisconsin, . . >> it is light runners. what is your day like? >> i get up in the morning and work out fairly early. my husband and i usually drive in separately. we like to carpool, but our schedules are crazy so we cannot do that often. a good to the office. a lot of things are similar to

what i did in the military when i was commanding a unit. i check in with my staff, chief of staff, find out what is going on for the day. i have the chief deputy to fate -- ? functions like a debbi. i work on the issues, work with the local bar on whenever they need help with if they need any help, try to do lots of strategic planning and thinking about where the court is going to be in the next 5 to 10 years and try to find ways to position us to be ready. >> and you said the fact earlier that you like it that there is a bankruptcy court. >> a lot of people that we see in our court did not get their because of poor habits. it is because of a job loss, or they have had a catastrophic medical illness in their family that has depleted their resources, and so by and large, in my court, and i have looked

at the record, they got there because of some misfortune and not because they were spendthrifts. >> can you write a book about all of this? >> i do not think so. the route of this, i have found it interesting that people think i am interesting. i will do my best as i go through the rest of my career to talk with as many young people as i can to encourage and motivate them, because i really do believe the that is the next generation, and we have got to do everything we can to give them all the tools we can to 60 to achieve their dreams and goals. >> make sure you get this right. the headline is marcia anderson, u.s. army reserve, the highest ranking african-american female in the army. >> that is correct. >> thank you for your time. >> thank you.

>> for a dvd copy of this program, call 1-877-662-776. ms. us at q-and-a.org, were the programs are also available as c-span podcasts. upcoming guests on "q&a," a sportswriter discussing his latest book, "one on one -- behind the scenes with the greats of the game." and michelle feels is a video reporter who talks about events, like occupy wall street. >> next, prime minister david

cameron at the british house of commons. after that, and the republican presidential candidates debate from des moines, iowa, and then another chance to see "q&a" what -- with marcia anderson. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," president and ceo chairmaine yoest. joshua gotbaum, examining what would happen if the pension benefit guaranty corp. becomes responsible for protecting pension plans for american airlines due to its filing for bankruptcy. and it education staff writer alyson klein talking about taiwan programs. "washington journal"