From 1989 until the day she died, Dollie Dean of Jackson, Ala., bragged about her Soldier daughter. A sharp mother of 10, she remembered watching the first of her children walk across the stage at her college graduation and receive her Air Force commission, yet she still called her daughter a "Soldier."

"Because her husband and son had been in the Army, everyone in the military was a Soldier," said Col. Valerie Hasberry, commander of the 627th Air Base Group and deputy garrison commander of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, "so until the day she died, she told everyone her daughter was a Soldier and that she was proud of me. I corrected her the first couple of times, but she's Mom, so I would just say ‘yes Mom.'"

Dollie may have unmaliciously slung aside 64 years of Air Force history in her confusion that every servicemember is a "Soldier," but she also might have unknowingly been an original contributor to the joint approach and the "one team, one fight" ideal. Her daughter continues to help lead that charge.

To see Hasberry today, one might believe that an innocent, determined Southern young woman who had a single gold bar tacked on to her uniform years ago has given way to the polished commander with the steady gaze revealed through thin glasses. But to speak to her, one would know that other than the last name that changed when she married her husband, Marc, in 1988, nothing much else has changed. A commitment to service, and a caring for others she holds close today as an Air Force leader started a world away in small town Alabama.

Family values

"My family was raised to be productive and also try to give something back to the community and the country," she said. "What I took and always maintained was the sense of community, the sense of family and the sense of teamwork that says ‘we're all in this together,' and no one can succeed without supporting each other."

Though she had that in her home and her immediate community, the bright student who dreamed of being an engineer also knew that her goals lay farther away than the confines of Clarke County - and knew she had to go after them.

"It helped that I had relatives from other, larger communities like Los Angeles, San Diego and Chicago," she said. "Also, we were always encouraged to read so we always knew there was something more out there." Hasberry was not only the daughter of a Baptist deacon, but also of a World War II draftee who served in Germany and the sister of a Soldier who saw combat in the jungles of Vietnam. She said despite its patriotism, her family didn't want to see little sister (she was the ninth of 10 children) enter the military and hoped she'd find safer ways to serve.

"I looked at everything from being a missionary, joining the Peace Corps, to serving in the military," she said. Despite the wishes of a traditionally Southern family which looked to protect its daughters, it was an impressive Air Force colonel from nearby Alabama State University who helped make up her mind.

"He talked about how if I really wanted to make a difference and give back, the military was an ideal way because I'd still be able to be an engineer like I wanted to be," she said. "When he laid out the possibilities he made a very convincing argument."

It was convincing enough to send her north to Tuscaloosa, not for the academic scholarship already offered to her by the University of Alabama, but instead an ROTC scholarship. She arrived on campus, however, with no notion of a long military career ahead of her.

U of Alabama

"I went into it thinking ‘I'll do my four years after I graduate, then I'll get out and do something else,'" she said. "Being away from home, they made you feel welcome and that you were a part of something a lot larger than just going to a job every day. They were very up front about what we would face as officers; the opportunities as well as the challenges. They made sure we knew the rules were there not to hamper creativity but to give us the boundaries in which to express that creativity without endangering any Airmen or the mission. My second year into ROTC I knew I was where I was supposed to be."

Coming from a home where family bonds may have trumped all else, Hasberry said she found a surrogate home with the detachment, not only from her commanders and instructors but also from fellow cadets - bonds impossible to make with her family back in Jackson.

"I keep in contact with most of the guys I was commissioned with," she said. "We talk, if I need to bounce some ideas we still have that connection. When my brothers or sisters wouldn't understand what I needed to talk about, these guys do."

She said she remembered her father's words on graduation day and they were typical of the man who stressed "always try your hardest and be the best at that you can be." Graduation and commissioning wasn't the end result of a successful run at the state's flagship university, but what should be the beginning of a successful life.

"His actual saying was ‘I don't care if you're digging a ditch, you better be the best ditch digger there is,' and it was that expectation that you would always give it your all. So the day I graduated and was commissioned it wasn't ‘great, you graduated college,'" she smiled, reflecting on the late Warren Dean. "It was ‘I'm proud of you, you applied yourself, you made it through,' and his whole point was, you've proven it to yourself and others that you can stick to it and get the job done, and that's what's going to carry you through."

First job

An assignment change en route landed Hasberry at what is now Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., home of the 50th Space Wing, and in the infancy of the Air Force's environmental program as the base's environmental engineer.

"I was able to get out and brief the wing commander as a second lieutenant and run the environmental program," she said. "It was a little daunting at first, especially since that wasn't my background, but I had a fantastic boss that said ‘we're going to get you the training, we're going to allow you to have the opportunities, and we'll be there to catch you if you start falling.' He was always there and I always had the mentorship. That was my first real leadership opportunity and I was lucky to get that."

A little more than 10 years later she got her first chance to command when she, serving as operations flight chief, became acting squadron commander at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, when her commander deployed. She has excelled at a string of assignments from then to now.

Hasberry might be an Airman first, but she's helping foster a monumental change in the joint military in the Pacific Northwest. Through compassion and dedication learned in rural Alabama, honor and pride honed as an University of Alabama ROTC cadet, and experience gained through a continuing Air Force career, Dollie Dean's "Soldier-daughter" stays busy, manages to pinch herself once in a while, and continues to serve a military that has served her for more than two decades.

"Sometimes I feel like I came in yesterday, but other times I'll meet someone that reminds me of home and I'll say ‘wow, it's hard to believe that I grew up in a town of roughly 7,000 people and I've travelled Europe and the Pacific; things that I used to dream of doing.' More importantly I think back on all of the people that I've met, worked with, and worked for, and I realize just how many people have had an impact on my life and hopefully I've had some impact on their lives as well."

Col. Valerie Hasberry file

June 1989 - December 1992 Chief, Environmental Planning, 50th Civil Engineering Squadron, Falcon Air Force Station, Colo.

December 1992 - October 1995 Design and construction engineer, Deputy Environmental Flight Chief and Environmental Flight Commander, 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany

October 1995 - June 1998 Environmental Program Manager, Facility Development Program Manager, Command Protocol Officer, Headquarters, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

June 1998 - July 2001 MILCON Program Manager, Chief, Technical Services Division, Office of the Civil Engineer, DCS/Installations and Logistics, Headquarters, United States Air Force, Pentagon, Arlington, Va.

July 2001 - June 2002 Student, Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Quantico, Va.

June 2002 - June 2004 Chief, Operations Flight, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam

June 2004 - June 2006 Chief, Infrastructure Support Branch; Chief, Planning and Base Branch, Headquarters, Pacific Air Forces, Directorate of the Civil Engineer, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii

June 2006 - July 2008 Commander, 355th Civil Engineer Squadron, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

July 2008 - July 2010 Chief, Capabilities Integration Branch, Joint Staff/J8, Pentagon, Arlington, Va.

July 2010 - June 2011 Student, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.