CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A leader of the West Virginia National Guard is retiring.
Gov. Jim Justice on Friday announced Command Sgt. Maj. Phillip Cantrell, the National Guard’s Senior Enlisted Leader, will retire following a 32-year career with the U.S. Army. Cantrell has served with the West Virginia National Guard since November 2018, in which he has provided counsel to state Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. James Hoyer.
Cantrell enlisted in the Army in 1988 as an infantryman and spent multiple years with the All-American Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He also completed a tour as a drill sergeant at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri before moving to West Virginia and working with the Army Senate Liaison Division.
“Command Sergeant Major Cantrell has spent more than three decades and traveled all around the world to defend the freedoms that we hold dear as West Virginians and as Americans. We all owe him a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid,” Justice asid in a statement.
“We owe everything we have to the men and women of our West Virginia National Guard and all of our members of the military, active and retired, who have served and sacrificed to make our lives better. I congratulate Command Sergeant Major Cantrell, from the bottom of my heart, on a career well-spent serving his fellow West Virginians, and I wish him nothing but the best in his much-deserved retirement.”