Battleship Park director to speak at McHAM
One of the most popular sites to visit in the state is Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, home of the USS Alabama.
Thursday, May 5, the Marengo County History and Archives Museum Foundation will host a program at 5:30 p.m. by Maj. Gen. Janet L. Cobb, U.S. Army retired, executive director of the park since 2015. She will talk about the park and how she got there. There is no cost, but donations to McHAM will be accepted.
Janet Cobb became the eighth executive director of the USS Alabama Battleship Commission and Battleship Memorial Park on Dec. 14, 2015.
Her military career began when she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in May 1974 and served for two years. She was commissioned a second lieutenant, Signal Corps in May 1978 from the University of Alabama ROTC program, where she was named a Distinguished Military Graduate. Cobb was the 54th general officer and first female general officer to graduate from the Capstone.
In April 2017, she was one of seven selectees for the inaugural University of Alabama ROTC Hall of Fame. She holds a M.S.S. from the United States Army War College and a B.A. from the University of Alabama.
Her career included commanding at the detachment, battalion, brigade, directorate/brigadier general and major general levels. During her service, she was deployed to post-Desert Storm operations in Saudi Arabia; Operation Iraqi Freedom port operations in Kuwait; Commander, 598th Transportation Group, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with oversight of military ports in Europe and North Africa, and Director, Central Command Deployment & Distribution Operations Center, Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, directing all intra-theater airlift for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cobb was assigned to the Department of the Army Staff as the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, (Mobilization and Training) from 2011-2014. She was served in the Pentagon on the Army Staff as Deputy G-4 in 2012. In October 2013, then-Secretary of the Army John Marsh appointed her to the Army Reserve Forces Policy Committee for a two-year term.
Her last assignment was Commanding General, 81st Regional Support Command, Fort Jackson, S.C. and Senior Commander, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. She retired Aug. 8, 2016, after 42 years in uniform.
Cobb holds the position of president of the Historic Naval Ships Association and serves on the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She also serves on the Mobile Bay Area Veterans Day Commission Board of Trustees, the Veterans Initiative Advisory Council of the Community Foundation of South Alabama and the Lee Foundation Board of Directors. She lives in the Barnwell community in Baldwin County.