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While studying at the University of Queensland, Burrows experienced a "divine compulsion" to rejoin the Army. Her leadership skills were evident at age 19, when her father suffered an asthma attack during worship services and Burrows coolly preached an impromptu sermon. Equipped with degrees in history and English and a graduate degree in education, Burrows spent 17 years as an educator in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). After leaving Africa in 1969, she served in England as an administrator and then was the territorial commander in Sri Lanka, Scotland and southern Australia.
In these posts, she displayed the qualities of self-discipline and single- mindedness that marked her as a contender for the top post. Says one Army colleague: "She knows what she wants and sets out to get it." A workaholic with an outgoing personality, she finds time for two passions: swimming and crossword puzzles.
Like her predecessors, Burrows will keep the Army on a conservative tack. The U.S. branch was a founder of the USO but resigned from the group in 1976 when it began serving alcohol to soldiers. In 1981 the Army quit the World Council of Churches after it awarded welfare grants to guerrilla organizations that eventually overthrew the white minority regime in Rhodesia. The Army found aid for violent groups inappropriate.
Some critics fault the Army for not changing with the times, but Burrows rejects the criticism. "We're hardheaded as well as softhearted," she insists. "We won't hang on to things just because we've always done them." As head of women's social services in Britain in the mid-1970s, Burrows met new demands by converting orphanages into shelters for battered women, and in Australia she has inaugurated new efforts to train unemployed youths. In the U.S., Army leaders have cut back street-corner proselytizing and increased counseling services.
Next week Burrows will announce a new U.S. commander to replace Norman S. Marshall, who is retiring after three years in the post. She is already mapping the Army's future, including how to deal with the alarming drop in European officers. But what is certain not to change is the Army's dedication to serving the unfortunate. A visit to the Bowery in New York City vividly illustrates that commitment. There, in a lodging run by the Army since 1912, a staff of 72 takes care of more than 400 down-and-outers. An officer on duty admits that "most of these men aren't going to improve." That may be true, adds a colleague, but "we try to give them a sense of responsibility for themselves." General Burrows could not have said it better.
FOOTNOTE: *The Army's first female leader was Evangeline Booth, the founder's daughter, who served from 1934 to 1939.