Gen. James Benson: Historic Changing of the Guard

It was Jan. 20, 2025, one day before his official swearing-in, that Delaware Gov.-elect Matt Meyer nominated Brig. Gen. James Benson to be the new adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard. In accepting the nomination, Benson, a Wilmington University alumnus, responded with characteristic humility while noting the profound symbolism of the date.

“I’m not certain if the timing of the press release was intentional for Martin Luther King Day,” he said, “but it’s truly an honor to receive this nomination on such a meaningful day.

“As the first African American to serve as the adjutant general in Delaware, I recognize that I stand on the shoulders of trailblazers like Brig. Gen. Ernest Talbert, the first African American general in the Delaware Air National Guard, and Brig. Gen. David Fleming, the first African American general in the Delaware Army National Guard.”

The AG serves as the principal military advisor to the governor and commands the 122-year-old Delaware National Guard, which includes 1,500 soldiers, 1,100 airmen, and 17 facilities throughout the state. The Guard supports the state in emergency and non-emergency situations, including natural disasters, and enforcement of martial law when local law officials require help. The Guard may also be called into federal service by the president or Congress. 

Benson, who was promoted to major general soon after becoming AG, is the third Wilmington graduate to hold the title. Gen. Frank Vavala (1984, Business Management) served 18 years in the post, retiring in 2017. He was the first Delaware Guardsman to achieve a four-star rank and one of the few American service members to have risen from private to four-star general. 

He was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Carol Timmons, Delaware’s first female adjutant general and the first female general in Delaware National Guard history. Like Vavala, Timmons graduated from Wilmington College in 1984, with a degree in Aviation Management. She also earned a master’s in Management in Public Administration from WilmU in 2013. She retired from the Guard in 2019, and, sadly, passed away the following year.

Benson’s appointment was the culmination of 34 years in the Delaware Guard, during which he served in various leadership positions, including two overseas assignments — in Iraq and Afghanistan — while gaining valuable experience in strategic military operations, national defense, emergency response, community engagement, and leadership.

His military career began in the navy. After graduating from William Penn High School in New Castle, where he played basketball, ran track and cross country, was a member of the marching band, and served on the student council, Benson went on to the University of Delaware, where he lettered in track all four years. 

During his sophomore year at UD, he and a friend decided to join the Navy Reserve and receive tuition assistance through the G.I. Bill while also earning some extra money. After completing basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois, he served for 3½ years as a reservist, earning a degree in Economics.

While at UD, Benson was instrumental in founding the Nu Xi chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, one of the oldest predominantly African American Greek-letter organizations in the U.S. With more than 260,000 members and 721 undergraduate and alumni chapters in every state and international chapters in 10 countries, the fraternity sponsors programs centered on community service, social welfare, and academic scholarship. 

After mustering out of the navy as an E-3 seaman, Benson decided to continue his career as a citizen-soldier, but this time as an officer and in a different military branch — the army. In 1991, he enlisted in the Delaware Army National Guard and quickly qualified for Officer Candidate School at the Regional Training Institute in Bethany Beach. He was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1992. 

In 1998, aware that a master’s degree would improve his chances of promotion, he enrolled in the MBA program at WilmU. At the time, he worked in administration for Delaware Technical Community College, recruiting students. “It was ideal for me as a working professional,” Benson says. “Wilmington had eight- or 10-week courses, and I could knock out those courses in a shorter length of time versus going to other institutions for 16 weeks. For me, Wilmington was great, and I share that with everyone.” 

A few years later, he earned another master’s in Strategic Studies from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 

During his time in the Delaware Guard, he has been called to active duty three times. The first occurred in 2003 when Benson, by then a captain, moved to Arlington, Virginia, to begin a temporary active duty assignment at the National Guard Bureau’s (NGB) Joint Operations Center, which is responsible for planning, coordinating, and integrating all aspects of the Guard’s nationwide operations, including responses to emergencies and disasters.

In the army, “temporary” is used loosely, and he spent four years in Virginia. “It started as a six-month assignment, and after that they said, ‘We like you, can you stay?’ I did, and I got a lot of valuable experience there,” he says. “That was the time of Katrina and also the blackout from Michigan to New York. We would receive data from the various states and feed that data to the National Guard Bureau for their response.”

Almost immediately after his duty at NGB, as a newly minted major, he took on the first of his two overseas assignments, joining Operation Iraqi Freedom in Baghdad. There, he served as a staff officer with the 198th Rear Area Operations Center for 14 months. Although it was called a “rear area” operation, his unit definitely “was not in the rear,” Benson says. Shouts of “Incoming!” were heard with some frequency. 

A few years later, in 2012, he was deployed again, this time as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, to take command of the 198th Expeditionary Signal Battalion in Kandahar, Afghanistan. By then a lieutenant colonel, Benson commanded a battalion of 560 soldiers in five companies — three from Delaware. From April 2012 to June 2014, they were responsible for communications across the entire country.

After returning to Delaware, he continued to climb the military ranks while pursuing a civilian career as an Emergency Management consultant with the U.S. Department of  Transportation and the Department of Agriculture. With his promotion to brigadier general in January 2021, he became director of the Joint Staff of the Delaware Guard. In May of 2023, he was named assistant adjutant general, a post he held until last January, when he succeeded Maj. Gen. Michael Berry, who retired after six years as AG. 

In nominating Benson, Meyer noted that “he has demonstrated . . . a deep commitment to the well-being of our troops.”

That commitment stems from a keen awareness of the role of Guardsmen — civilians whose military service consists of one weekend drill a month and two weeks of summer camp during the typical six-year enlistment.

“Our soldiers and airmen are out in the world for 28 days a month, and we see them on two,” Benson says. “But they’re impacted by those 28 days, and they bring that to our two. We have to be understanding in that they’re dealing with different things at that time — family, jobs, health situations. So a soldier or airman might not come to drill on that Saturday morning all rosy, and they don’t want someone barking at them. We have to have some empathy. Often, all it takes is, ‘Hey, everything OK? How’s the family?’”

Benson became a full-time soldier when he assumed the AG duties and enjoys its community outreach opportunities. He recently conducted a Read Aloud session at a Wilmington Church, and he spent a day at Wilmington’s Conrad High School as part of the Principal for a Day Program, an initiative of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.

During public appearances, he often points out the benefits offered by the organization he has been part of for over three decades. “The National Guard,” he says, “has great family support and wellness services, and those have increased over the past 20 years.” They include tuition assistance of up to $4,500 a year, inexpensive daycare for children during drill weekends, inpatient hospital care, outpatient medical services, financial counseling, and behavioral health services.

While embracing his duties as AG, Benson can’t help but marvel at the journey that brought him to that office. “When I think back to my time as an enlisted man — an E-3 — and a junior officer, doing KP or dining hall duty, or polishing brass,” he says, “it’s almost unbelievable to be wearing two stars.  I am truly honored and grateful to serve the state of Delaware and the nation.”

— Bob Yearick