This article features Eugenia Thornton

From Bien Hoa to Bosnia, Eugenia “Gene” Thornton entered Active Duty in Jan 1973 from Middletown, DE and retired at Fort Myer, VA in Feb 2000. Her parents were Dolly and Gene Thornton of Cass Street.

Gene commanded a Transition Point, a Division Personnel Company, a Corps Personnel Company, a Regional Personnel Center, a Personnel/Postal Battalion, and served as both Deputy Commander of a Personnel Group and the Corps Adjutant General during Operation Desert Storm, also known as the lst Gulf War.

In her alternate field of public affairs, Gene edited a post newspaper, was press escort during several international NATO exercises, as well as for the Iranian Hostage Return, and worked in the office of the Director of Admissions, US Military Academy, in the office of the Secretary of the Army for the Chief of Army Public Affairs, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, and served as advisor to the Vice Chief of Staff, US Army (2nd highest ranking officer in the US Army).

When she retired in February 2000, she was serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel in the Military District of Washington. She was one of only a dozen women who had attained the rank of colonel or higher. She was the first woman to hold every single job she had for 27 years. She always felt pressure to mentor women and make it easier for them to achieve.

Upon her retirement, Gene returned to Delaware where she started her own professional services business, and worked in a Dover law firm. Soon, she became a Kent County Regional Planning Commissioner and served in that capacity for 13 years. Gene also volunteered for the Southern Delaware Division of the American Heart Association and, in fact, was President of the Board from 2008 to 2011. Gene belongs to many conservation and animal rights organizations and served on several of their boards. She served on the Board of the Friends of the Delaware Public Achieves representing Kent County. Gene is the architect and founding chair of a committee whose aim is to see that military retired pay is free of Delaware State taxes. In addition, she is a tireless advocate for the Delaware Veterans Home, where her husband of 42 years, LTC Don Jagger, resided for the last five years of his life. Gene has been president of the Dover Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America since January 2019.

Gene’s liberal arts degree is from Washington College, in Chestertown MD and her Master’s in Public Administration is from Golden Gate University, San Francisco. She also graduated from the Army College of Command and Staff on the Commandant’s list.

Gene married her records keeping ability with her public affairs expertise. She is serving her first term as the Kent County Recorder of Deeds, beginning January 2023. Using the military ethos of benchmarking, goal setting, and listening to stakeholders, Gene received a commendation from the City of Dover before she had served a full year. At the end of her first year, she was named the Kent County Elected Official of the Year, and at the end of her second year, she was selected Readers’ Choice Public Official for the Stars of Delaware.

Gene will present “I’ll Shoot You First, Myself: One woman’s 27 year journey in ‘this man’s Army’” at the Delaware Agriculture Museum on March 12, 2025 from 5-6:30pm. Admission is free.

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