Hall induction
Retired Col. Mary Short Hammond, a Gilberton native, was inducted into the Army Hall of Fame on March 11 at the annual Signal Corps Regimental Ball in Springfield, Virginia.
Hammond is a daughter of the late Charles and Anna Panchura Short. Her family members, including her brother, Jamie Short, Gilberton, and sister, Susan Short Bensinger, New Orleans, plus numerous friends and co-workers joined her at the ball.
Hammond is now designated as a distinguished member of the Signal Regiment and is one of the few select Signal Corps members who are now designated and recognized for their accomplishments in support of the Army Signal Corps. Her recognized service is for both her 28 years as an Army signal officer attaining the rank of colonel and 14 years as a Department of the Army civilian, serving as deputy director and director of the Army’s premier information technology and engineering college at Fort Gordon, Georgia.
The colonel enlisted in the Army in 1973 and received her commission as a second lieutenant in 1974. She served in locations world-wide, including Korea and Germany, and various locations in the continental United States.
She served three times as a platoon leader, twice as a company commander, battalion executive officer and battalion commander, an Army staff officer in the Pentagon, ROTC instructor, brigade logistics officer, Pentagon crisis action team leader, program manager for Defense Information Systems Agency, Army Satellite Systems manager and commandant U.S. Army Signal Regimental Officer Academy. After retirement in 2001, she went on to serve as a civilian, leading a college that produces all of the Army’s information technology, networking and engineering experts. She still serves there today, and re-mains a leader, innovator and recognized subject matter expert in leadership and education in the Army.
A 1970 graduate of Cardinal Brennan High School, Hammond earned a bachelor’s degree from Kutztown University in 1974, a master’s degree from Mount St. Mary’s, Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1981, and an MS from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1997.
She has earned numerous military and civilian awards, including the Legion of Merit, multiple Meritorious Service medals, Commendation and Achievement awards and is a recipient of both the Bronze and Silver Orders of Mercury from the Signal Corps Regimental Association. She also earned the Ordnance Corps Order of Samuel Sharpe.
Hammond resides in Evans, Georgia.