Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa National Guard’s adjutant general is retiring on March 1st.
Major General Benjamin Corell has been in the National Guard for 37 years.
Corell grew up on a farm near Strawberry Point. His wife saw an ad for the Iowa National Guard in the newspaper and Corell joined a unit based in Oelwein in 1986. In 2017, Corell assumed command of the famed “Red Bulls” in the 34th Infantry Division. Governor Reynolds appointed him to lead the Iowa National Guard in August of 2017 and she will name his replacement. Reynolds announced his retirement earlier this week.
The state’s Emergency Operations Center is at the Iowa National Guard headquarters. Reynolds spent many hours there directing the state’s early response to the pandemic. If the more than nine-thousand soldiers and airmen Corell commands in the Iowa National Guard were a single community, it would be Iowa’s 45th largest city.
Corell commanded the Iowa National Guard’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team during its deployment to Afghanistan more than a decade ago. It was the Iowa National Guard’s single largest deployment of soldiers since World War II. Corell also commended the Iowa Guard’s LONGEST deployment. The Waterloo-based 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment was deployed to Iraq for two years.
