Brig. Gen. Niave Knell to be first female deputy commander in history of Fort Riley's Big Red One

For the first time in its history, Fort Riley's First Infantry Division, also known as the Big Red One, will have a female deputy commander.

Brig. Gen. Niave G. Knell was named Monday as that division's deputy commanding general (support), the Army said in a news release Thursday.

Knell has been serving as commandant of the U.S. Army Military Police School in the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

She was previously chief of staff for U.S. Army North at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

Maj. Douglas Arthur "D.A." Sims II since August 2020 has been commander of the First Infantry Division, which has about 15,500 soldiers.

Sims is that division's 86th commander since it was created in 1917.

Knell is a first-generation American, with her parents having come to the U.S. from Ireland on a green card in 1965, she told the Milford, Mass., Daily News last year.

Knell graduated from high school at Milford, Mass., and was nominated by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where she graduated in 1992.

She then became a military police officer and received her first commission, to Germany. She has since held various assignments.

Knell is married with three sons.

She told the Daily News that being a woman in a typically male-dominated field had been challenging at times but had not been a barrier, particularly in the military police, which was integrated 15 years before she joined.

“The Army is a meritocracy," Knell said. "If you work hard, you will be successful."

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Fort Riley's 'Big Red One' gets first-ever female deputy commander