HIGH PROFILE: Col. Erica Ingram wasn’t looking for a military career, but a college scholarship helped her make up her mind

“If you’re a supervisor, you’ve got to speak to everyone. If you’re an employee, you don’t. … I don’t care what you’re wearing on your chest, everybody deserves respect.” -Col. Erica Ingram
“If you’re a supervisor, you’ve got to speak to everyone. If you’re an employee, you don’t. … I don’t care what you’re wearing on your chest, everybody deserves respect.” -Col. Erica Ingram

Col. Erica Ingram wanted nothing to do with the military. Early in life she considered a teaching career. As a young adult, she had her eye on a business career.

But a scholarship opportunity started her on the road to her present role: the first black female colonel in the Arkansas National Guard’s 215-year history. Ingram, 46, serves as the deputy chief of staff personnel, responsible for the military actions for the Army side of the National Guard at Camp Joseph T. Robinson.

At the camp, “we are all actually like a family,” she says.“Most of us [in the Army Reserve] don’t move around a lot in our positions. Not out of state. You may change positions but you’re still in the general area within the borders of Arkansas. So there are people that work for me right now that … had kids that were 2 years old when I met them. And I went to birthday parties, to high school graduations, to college graduations.”

Contrary to Ingram’s early days as a soldier — serving out of convenience and planning several times to rejoin civilian life — she considers having joined the Guard to be “probably the best decision I made.”

Willie Chapple of Little Rock, who retired from Camp Robinson as a lieutenant colonel in November after 29 years of service, is glad she made that decision.

“Ingram has a personality second to none,” says Chapple, who describes her as multitalented. “I don’t know how, but she finds the time to be a mother, a sister, a friend, mentor, motivator, a speaker,” while still doing her job at Camp Robinson, he says. “She wears several hats and tries to help anyone she can.”

Retired Staff Sgt. Elston Forte of Little Rock, who was Ingram’s ROTC cadre instructor while she was a student at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, is proud of her.

“[I] admire her for not forgetting where she came from and her caring spirit for her soldiers,” he says. “She is a trendsetter for female African American soldiers who aspire to be officers. … She has always been so humble and appreciative.”

Ingram oversees personnel records for about 6,800 soldiers, handling such things as promotion packets, annual physical assessments, training documents, identification cards, medical benefits, child and youth programs and transition assistance for new retirees. With a budget of about $15 million for the different programs she manages, she supervises a mix of military personnel, civilians, contractors and state employees.

Ingram says she was proud to receive her promotion, but the job was nothing new.

“I was put in this position about 39 months before I got promoted,” she says. “But a lot of people ask me … ‘Well, how’s your new position?’ And I say, ‘Well, it’s not really a new position. I’ve been here for 30-something months. I’m just getting promoted into it.’

“After I had answered that so many times … I did get to a point where I was telling them, ‘It’s all in God’s timing,’ because I really wasn’t planning on being in the military to start with,” Ingram continues. “I got to the point where I thought I was going to be able to make the rank of colonel, but then it didn’t seem like I was going to make it. … I would say, ‘Lord, I know it’s your plan; it’s not mine. It’s really not my business but can you just give me an inkling so I could just hold on a bit longer to see where we’re going with this?’”

THE HIGHS AND THE LOWS

Ingram’s biggest joy when it comes to the job is people. Her biggest challenge? People.

“With people, every case is different …,” she says. The joy comes from “the satisfaction or the gratification from helping people — when you’re trying to help yourself.” Whereas, “the frustration [comes from] the ones who aren’t trying to help themselves or are trying to get over.”

On the positive side, she observes, people seem to remember the little acts of kindness rather than the big ones. She cites a man with whom she worked 10-13 years. When he retired, the man sent her an invitation to his retirement ceremony. “‘I’d been in the military for 17 years when I met you and you were the first person that ever cared enough to always ask me about my family,’” he told Ingram.

That was just a simple courtesy to Ingram. It was how she was raised. And she passes along her good upbringing to those she oversees.

She has a rule: “If you’re a supervisor, you’ve got to speak to everyone. If you’re an employee, you don’t. … I don’t care what you’re wearing on your chest, everybody deserves respect.”

One of four children born to Vera and John W. Johnson, Ingram grew up in tiny Wilmar in Drew County. “I come from a city with a population of less than 1,500 then, and now less than 1,000, with not even one traffic light.” According to the website Arkansas.Hometownlocator.com , the city had a population of only 453 as of July 1, 2018.

As a child, she considered going into teaching. “I think probably like most kids, when you’re young, you want to grow up to emulate people like your teachers,” Ingram says.

When she got older, that changed. By her senior year at Wilmar High School —1989-1990 — she’d turned her thoughts to a business career.

Her schoolmate Kevin Riley, lead pastor of In His Presence Worship Ministries and a broker for IHP Real Estate, remembers Ingram being voted Most Likely to Succeed by her high school peers because of her leadership qualities.

“ Erica proved to be well-rounded in that not only was she academically gifted, but she was a cheerleader, played basketball and had a beautiful singing voice,” says Riley, of Little Rock. “She has always demonstrated strength in character.”

ACCIDENTAL SOLDIER

Ingram’s first encounter with a life she didn’t envision for herself came via her high school principal, who was friends with the professor of military science at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The principal asked if she would meet with the professor to discuss the possibility of attending UAPB, going into its Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and applying for an ROTC scholarship.

Sure, Ingram said, out of courtesy. She had no intention of ever applying. But as she puts it, she succumbed to the “used-car salesman” pressure. She still didn’t think she would be offered a scholarship. “But of course that happened, too,” she says.

“So here I am now, trying to figure out how to graciously not accept this opportunity,” Ingram continues. “As I’m explaining how I’m not exactly sure if I’m military material, it’s pointed out that there is a ‘try it before you actually commit’ one-year clause. So then my analysis kicks in. If the other scholarships pay all my tuition and fees, I could use my ROTC scholarship funds to pay for an off-campus apartment.”

So she took the plunge, fully intending to bow out at the end of that year.

“Actually my family and friends did not want me to join the military,” she says. “I had uncles, cousins and a brother who had served in either the National Guard, Reserves, Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines … encountering some not-so-good experiences.” Only one cousin retired from the California National Guard as sergeant major.

“In addition, my Spanish teacher/student council sponsor repeatedly tried to convince me there was no need for me to join the military,” Ingram adds. “But because my village has also supported me in my life choices, they were there every step of the way — despite not approving.”

As the trial year passed, Ingram still did not develop any sort of passion for military life. But, well, it had a passion for her.

“I try to quit at the one-year period but, lo and behold I let them convince me to stay,” she says, crediting Forte for his powers of persuasion. “But the one thing I never let them convince me to become is a SMP [a member of the Simultaneous Membership Program]. I am not giving up my weekends for drill.” SMP members were the ones who had to wear the uniforms every Thursday, and she didn’t really like wearing the uniform. “Your hair has to be a certain way. You can’t have certain colors on your nails. And I liked hot-pink nails, highlights in my hair and all that kind of stuff.”

ROTC cadets had an option of applying for Reserve or active duty commission. Ingram’s next partial exit strategy: to request a Reserve officer’s commission upon graduation. “I’m completely open to committing one weekend a month and two-week AT [annual training] versus everyday active duty,” she says. So, graduating from UAPB in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in business management and administration, Ingram requested a Reserve commission.

She received an active duty commission instead.

YOU’RE IN THE ARMY NOW … REALLY

So 2nd Lt. Erica Ingram came up with another exit strategy. She’d commit to four years of active duty. After that, “I was determined no one was convincing me to change my mind this time,” she says.

She did four and a half years of active duty, first at Fort Polk, La., then transferring to Amarillo Military Entrance Processing Station in Texas, and making it to the rank of captain.

“And what do I do? I let the [inter-service recruiter] convince me to join the National Guard,” Ingram recalls.

It was in 1999 that Ingram first came to Camp Robinson. At first, she took a civilian job, working eight months for the state Employment Security Department and fulfilling her Guard duty once a month on the weekend. “At that point, when I worked strictly as a civilian, is when I finally [told myself], ‘Well you are more military than you thought you were.’ … I started pursuing coming back to do this full time.”

She did so and continued to rise through the ranks.

Holder of a number of medals and ribbons, Ingram was promoted from lieutenant colonel to full colonel during a Nov. 11 ceremony at the camp … “the culmination of a long promotion process that included the approval of the secretary of the Army, the secretary of defense, the president and U.S. Senate,” as pointed out in a Nov. 30 Democrat-Gazette story. An earlier piece, running July 13, 2014, tells of then-Lt. Col. Ingram’s forthcoming leadership of the Guard’s 871st Troop Command; she is the first black woman in that post also.

Glendine Moore of Little Rock, consumer affairs specialist for the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, praises her friend, Ingram, as “an outstanding leader that has established an honest connection with her subordinates as well as her peers.”

“Col. Ingram’s positive attitude and her ability to effectively communicate [are] two of her strong characteristics that I admire,” Moore says. “Her listening and note-taking skills are among the best — she will review her notes and remind you what you said. She is passionate about her career and all the soldiers [who] work beside her. She stands her ground and will battle for what is right.”

TOUGH AND FAIR

True, she’s no one’s pushover, Chapple assures.

“She is stern and believes in holding everyone accountable, no matter who you are,” he says. “She is genuine and always brutally honest. But she’s also a good listener, a giver of constructive feedback, and goes above and beyond in mentoring, teaching and coaching others. She motivates all soldiers she encounters.”

People will say she’s hard, Ingram acknowledges. “But I’m fair and consistent. Usually, as long as you uphold the standard and you’re holding everybody to the same standard, people don’t mind you being hard and having a standard,” she says. “People just want respect, regardless of who they are, how old [they] are, what rank [they] are. They want and deserve respect. And they just want you to be consistent and treat everybody the same.”

Ingram’s parents weren’t alive to see her reach the rank of colonel. But at the promotion ceremony, she was surrounded by what she calls her “village” … people who knew her as a baby, high school teachers, friends from high school, people from her active-duty days, current associates. And when not at her official capacity, Ingram likes to spend time with the dearest of these village members. Currently separated, she has two grown daughters: DeeDee Shantelle, 25, and Desarie Ingram, 21, both of whom pinned insignias on Ingram’s uniform during the ceremony.

“Col. Ingram’s daughters are her number one priority,” says retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Marilyn Matthews of Sherwood.

And, Ingram appreciates her circle of friends who, she says, allow her to “just be Erica.”

But there are those who believe she can go much farther in her official capacity.

“She would also make an outstanding adjutant general for the Arkansas National Guard,” Matthews says.

That’s not all.

“Fifteen years from now, she would be a great candidate for governor.”

SELF PORTRAIT

Col. Erica Ingram

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Sept. 8, 1972, Warren

BEST ADVICE I’VE EVER RECEIVED, AND FROM WHOM: “Always treat people right, regardless of how they treat you,” and “People always reap what they sow, good and bad.” — my mom.

THE MOST VALUABLE THINGS I’VE LEARNED IN THE MILITARY: Flexibility, perseverance, resilience and how to accomplish more with less.

A COMMON ARMY STEREOTYPE THAT’S TRUE: Is that we like structure, itineraries, time lines and rehearsals. Those who don’t start out that way eventually become that way.

A COMMON ARMY STEREOTYPE THAT’S NOT TRUE: Is that soldiers don’t think for themselves. Soldiers are put into incredibly complex situations and have to think quickly on their feet.

MY MOST FAVORITE HISTORICAL MILITARY FIGURE: Retired Brigadier Gen. William Johnson, former deputy adjutant for the Arkansas Army National Guard.

HERE’S WHAT THIS ARMY WOMAN REALLY THINKS OF THOSE SAILORS, AIRMEN AND MARINES: The strength of our nation is our United States Armed Forces; we are One Force, One Fight — But, the Army was established first.

MY BIGGEST GUILTY PLEASURE: Food.

MY FANTASY DINNER GUESTS: My mom and dad; Abraham Lincoln; John F. Kennedy; my grandfather, Private First Class John Johnson; Michelle Obama; and Harriett Tubman.

ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Resilient

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“I got to the point where I thought I was going to be able to make the rank of colonel, but then it didn’t seem like I was going to make it. … I would say, ‘Lord, I know it’s your plan; it’s not mine. It’s really not my business but can you just give me an inkling so I could just hold on a bit longer to see where we’re going with this?’” -Col. Erica Ingram

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