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Frank D. Vavala
Major General
U.S. Army (Ret.)
Frank Vavala has a combined service time over a span of 50 years. He is the first Delaware National Guardsman to achieve four-star rank and one of the very few American service members to have risen from private to four-star general.
Vavala enlisted as a private in the Delaware Army National Guard in March 1967. He was commissioned in June 1970 after completing the Delaware Military Academy Officer Candidate School. Vavala has held a series of key command and staff positions. He commanded at the Platoon, Company, Battalion and Brigade levels and was promoted to Brigadier General, as the Assistant Adjutant General of the Delaware Army National Guard in 1995.
He was subsequently promoted to Major General, as the Adjutant General of the Delaware National Guard in 1999, where he held prominent national positions as President of the Adjutants General Association of the United States and Chairman of the Board of the National Guard Association of the United States.
Prior to his retirement in 2017, he was promoted to Lieutenant General (State) and General (State), by Governor’s Markell and Carney respectively, making him the only Delawarean to achieve this honor.
He currently serves on numerous Boards, Committees and Commissions at both the National and State level and is the Veteran’s Advocacy Specialist for the Delaware Technical and Community College.
He resides in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife of 54 years, Jane, and they have a son, two daughters and three grandchildren.