EYEWITNESS NEWS (WBRE/WYOU) — Brigadier General Maureen Weigl has served our country proudly in the army and now serves the Commonwealth as the Deputy Adjutant General for Veterans Affairs the first woman in that role.

The Dunmore native continues to fight for veteran’s rights every day.

Brigadier General Maureen Weigl was appointed Deputy Adjutant General for Veterans Affairs in Pennsylvania in 2021.

In this position, she supervises the administration of state veteran programs and initiatives for more than 700,000 veterans and their families.

“It’s the most rewarding and amazing job I’ve ever had. every day I wake up, we run six long-term care nursing homes, one right here in Lackawanna County, the Gino Merli Veterans Center,” said Brig. Gen. Weigl.

Weigl was commissioned as a distinguished military graduate through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Pittsburgh. She retired from the army in 2016 after serving for 25 years.

“When I was a second lieutenant I went to Haiti, to a third-world country, back in 1994. When I was a lieutenant colonel, I went over to Kuwait and Iraq to work on a project to take care of service members when they leave in case they have a mild traumatic brain injury, traumatic brain injury, or PTSD,” explained Brig. Gen. Weigl.

Weigl is based in Fort Indiantown Gap, near Harrisburg. She is a proud Dunmore buck who played on the basketball team and ran cross country.

“I loved growing up in Dunmore. So, what really helped me be successful and get to this was not only my wonderful parents who also gave, my father was a schoolteacher at Dunmore High School and athletic director, and my brother followed in his footsteps as the principal. My mother volunteered so much of her time. she went to the prisons, she gave back to the community,” continued Brig. Gen. Weigl.

Weigl is an advocate for women and explains how women in the military have come a long way.

“Women really can do anything they want do to in the United States Armed Forces. When I joined, you couldn’t be an infantryman, you couldn’t be a fighter pilot. today, everything is open to women and so we’ll have more four-star females, we’ll have the first secretary of defense, we’ll have the first chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, that’s coming within the next five years, I’m confident,” says Brig. Gen. Weigl.

Brigadier General Weigl holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, and the U.S. Army War College.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs provides a lot of information on its website for veterans and their families.