Retired Army Maj. Gen. Peggy (Huther) Combs ’85, H’21 at the Syracuse University Alumni Awards Celebration in April.
Some leaders are born. Others are made. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Peggy (Huther) Combs ’85, H’21 is a little of both.
“Leadership is about people, understanding their value and bringing it out of them,” explains the 2024 recipient of Syracuse University’s Military/Veteran Alumni Award. “I learned that as a high school student-athlete, an Army ROTC cadet at Syracuse and an Army commanding general.”
Even in “retirement,” Combs is still learning. President of the storied Army and Navy Academy in San Diego, she draws on her rich experience to inspire future military leaders.
Combs is not lost on the irony of running a century-old, all-male prep school. “Leadership should be gender neutral,” declares the Army’s Distinguished Service Medal recipient. “I make sure our cadets have every opportunity to lead a virtuous life.”
Such empathy permeated Combs’ own 33-year military career, culminating in a high-ranking chief of staff position at the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, both in Colorado Springs.
“Syracuse taught me that leadership is not about you; it’s about your team,” says the advisory board member of Syracuse’s Office of Veteran and Military Affairs. “Good teams—and good leaders—invite their members to step out of their comfort zones and grow. It’s scary and exciting.”
An Unlikely Start
Combs’ military career culminated in a chief of staff position at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado.
Combs’ resume is nothing to blanch at. But for all her moxie, including leadership stints at Fort Knox (Kentucky), Fort Leonard Wood (Missouri) and Fort Jackson (South Carolina), she got off to an unlikely start.
Growing up an hour east of Syracuse, Combs was a four-sport athlete in high school who wanted nothing more than to see the world—as a flight attendant. “College wasn’t even in the picture,” she says, until her Army reservist mother brought home a brochure about Syracuse’s Army ROTC program.
The pamphlet contained a tear-off form, which 17-year-old Combs filled out, mailed and promptly forgot about. Six weeks later, when a recruiter called her at home, she hung up on him. “I thought it was a prank call. I didn’t even remember what ROTC was or what the initials stood for.”
When the recruiter called back, Combs learned that she had unwittingly applied for an Army ROTC scholarship. The conversation revealed that in addition to graduating as a commissioned officer, ROTC could open doors to professional skills development, scholarship opportunities and tuition assistance. She was hooked.
Syracuse taught me that leadership is not about you; it’s about your team.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Peggy Combs ’85, H’21
Weeks later, Combs got her first taste of cadet drill training on the floor of what is now the JMA Wireless Dome. “I barely understood anything they said. I totally embarrassed myself,” admits the former biology major. “They probably took one look at my long, curly blonde hair and wondered why they had bothered with me. I had a lot of convincing to do.” Beginning with herself.
Coming Full Circle
“All roads lead to Syracuse,” says Combs, a Distinguished Military Graduate and an advisory board member of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs.
Combs quickly warmed up to cadet life at Syracuse, becoming a Distinguished Military Graduate. “I owed four years of service, which turned into 33,” says the first-generation alumna. She broke other boundaries in the process.
While earning master’s degrees from the University of Saint Mary and the U.S. Army War College, Combs was awarded almost every Army ribbon and decoration available. She also was Upstate New York’s first female general officer as well as the first and only female commanding general of Fort Knox’s notoriously difficult U.S. Army Cadet Command.
One of her favorite Army memories occurred in Baghdad, where she taught “democracy and policing skills” to Iraqi soldiers and police officers.
Combs came full circle in 2018, marking her retirement in Hendricks Chapel, where she had been commissioned years earlier. “I got to see the world after all,” surmises the married mother of three. “If you bleed Orange like I do, you know that all roads lead to Syracuse.”
