SAN ANTONIO — Janelle Madewell retired as a Major in the U.S. Army following a joint promotion ceremony with her husband, Christian Madewell, at the San Antonio Military Entrance Processing Station on Fort Sam Houston. During the ceremony, she was promoted to Major while Christian was promoted to Captain.

The couple’s children participated by pinning on their parents’ new ranks. LTC Retired Salvador Zuniga, known as “Colonel Z,” administered the oath for Janelle’s promotion. "This is a big rarity," Christian Madewell said. "You do see dual military. It’s not very common that those dual military members’ careers line up as ours have. My wife is my superior though." He added, "This is the first and only chance that we’ll have to do a joint promotion together since she’ll be exiting the Army."

Janelle Madewell served in the Army for more than a decade, initially assigned to a burn unit. She suffered a serious shoulder injury while caring for a patient at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg. "A patient didn’t react well to anesthesia and so they got into a wrestling match with me and took me to the ground, broke my arm, dislocated it," she said. Following multiple surgeries and a loss of fine motor skill in her right shoulder, she was reassigned to a Soldier Recovery Unit and ultimately accepted a medical retirement.

"It’s very surreal for me, being from San Antonio and the south side, being extremely poor when I was little. I wasn’t sure what my future was gonna look like," she said. "I think having a tough childhood made me always wanna help. And so now I’ve gotten to fulfill that goal for people who couldn’t help themselves."