US ARMY
Lieutenant General Nadja Yudith West (née Grammer; March 20, 1961) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general and was the 44th U.S. Army Surgeon General. She was a former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical Command. West is the first black Army Surgeon General, the first black female active-duty major general, the first black female major general in Army Medicine, and the first Army black female lieutenant general. She is the highest ranking woman to have graduated from the United States Military Academy. West joined the Army because “I come from a military family. I kind of grew up eating, drinking, breathing, living Army. My dad was in — he joined the Army in 1939, when the Army was segregated, and stayed in for 33 years.” She is a Karlsruhe BRAT.