Mark Milley

Mark Milley

Retired US Army General
Date of Birth: 20.06.1958
Country: USA

Content:
  1. Retired U.S. Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  2. Early Life and Education
  3. Military Career
  4. Chief of Staff of the Army
  5. Modernization and Reform
  6. Army Green Service Uniform
  7. Iraq War Study

Retired U.S. Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Mark Alexander Milley (born June 20, 1958) is a retired United States Army general who last served as the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2023. He previously served as the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army from August 14, 2015 to August 9, 2019, and held a variety of command and staff positions throughout his career in eight divisions and special forces units. A graduate of Princeton University's ROTC program, Milley was commissioned as an armor officer in 1980, later earning graduate degrees from Columbia University. He was appointed to the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump, making him the 10th U.S. Army officer to lead that body. As Chairman, Milley served as the senior military officer in the U.S. Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council.

Early Life and Education

Milley was born on June 20, 1958, in Winchester, Massachusetts. He is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic. His paternal grandfather, Peter (1897-1976), was from Newfoundland and served in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I. His father, Alexander (1924-2015), enlisted in the U.S. Navy in March 1943 as a hospital corpsman. He was assigned to the 4th Marine Division and landed at Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. After the war, he worked as a restaurateur and food service distributor and was a member of the Knights of Columbus, an organization open only to practicing Catholics. Milley's mother, Mary Elizabeth (née Murphy), was a nurse who served in the Navy Nurse Corps during World War II, and Milley describes her as a "glass ceiling-breaking woman."

Milley attended a Catholic high school, where he played hockey. His strong grades and athletic ability earned him acceptance to Belmont Hill School and then on to Princeton University, where he played varsity ice hockey. There he joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program and graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science after writing a 185-page honors thesis titled "A Critical Analysis of Revolutionary Guerrilla Organization in Theory and Practice." Milley also holds a Master of International Relations degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and another Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. He is also a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies Seminar XXI, a program for national security research.

Military Career

Milley was commissioned as an armor officer through Princeton's Army ROTC program in 1980.

Milley's career included assignments to the 82nd Airborne Division, 5th Special Forces Group, 7th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Readiness Training Center, 25th Infantry Division, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as the military assistant to the Secretary of Defense. Throughout his career, Milley held a variety of command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces units. He commanded the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea from 1996 to 1998. He served as the commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light), from December 2003 to July 2005; assistant division commander for operations, 101st Airborne Division from July 2007 to April 2008; and commander of 10th Mountain Division from November 2011 to December 2012. Milley commanded III Corps, headquartered at Fort Hood, Texas, from December 2012 to August 2014, and concurrently commanded the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command from May 2013 to February 2014. From August 2014 to August 2015, he served as the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Chief of Staff of the Army

Milley was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Army on August 14, 2015. In his initial message to the U.S. Army, General Milley outlined his priorities: readiness, the future Army, and caring for people. "We must ensure the Army remains prepared as the world’s premier fighting force. Readiness for ground combat is, and will remain, the U.S. Army’s number one priority. We will aggressively develop a flexible, adaptable Army for the future."

Modernization and Reform

During his tenure, Milley focused on Army modernization efforts, including a new command designed to streamline the way the Army capabilities are fielded, much like the approach used by U.S. Special Operations Command. At the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting in 2017, Milley outlined areas for modernization, including tanks, aircraft, and weapons. “We will get there faster … if we move to a SOCOM model: buy, try, decide and acquire versus the current linear, industrial-age model that takes years for requirements to be written, decades to test, and a generation from idea to fielding,” Milley said. He warned, “If we adapt to the changing character of warfare and accept the institutional changes we must make, then we will continue to be the most lethal fighting force in the world for the next seven decades and beyond. If we do not, we will lose the next war.”

In February 2017, the Army announced the creation of Security Force Assistance Brigades. These permanent units, also known as SFABs, were stood up at Fort Benning, with their primary mission to conduct security force assistance events and respond rapidly to combatant commander requirements.

According to Milley, while their training would be similar to that of Special Forces, soldiers in the SFAB would not be considered Special Forces. “They will be trained very similar to Special Forces but they are not Special Forces,” he said. According to Milley, these SFABs would be formed using noncommissioned officers and officers from infantry brigade combat teams to train foreign militaries in traditional light infantry tactics.

In 2018, Milley established Army Futures Command in Austin, Texas, to leverage academic and industry expertise nearby. It was given equal status to the Army’s three major commands—Army Forces Command, Army Materiel Command and Army Training and Doctrine Command—and represented one of the largest reform initiatives undertaken in more than four decades. Along with developing future warfighting concepts, eight cross-functional teams conducted research to further develop the Army’s modernization priorities: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, air and missile defense, soldier lethality, synthetic training environment, future vertical lift platforms, and assured positioning, navigation and timing.

Milley also spearheaded the Army’s adoption of a new physical fitness test in 2018. Designed to enhance overall combat readiness and simulate the physical tasks and stresses of combat, the new fitness test was to replace the 40-year-old Army Physical Fitness Test by October 2020. Milley said, “We want to make sure our soldiers are … physically fit to endure the rigors of close combat. Combat is not for the faint of heart, not for the weak-kneed, not for those who are not mentally tough, not for those that are not physically strong and not for those that are not acclimated or hardened to the brutality, to the viciousness of it.”

Army Green Service Uniform

In early 2017, Milley and then-Army Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Dailey began exploring the possibility of bringing back the iconic two-tone uniform, known as “Pinks and Greens,” in honor of the “Greatest Generation” of Soldiers who fought in World War II.

The Army believed that reintroducing the uniform would provide Soldiers with a uniform for wear in a professional environment that honors the Army heritage, reconnects today’s Soldiers with their service history, enhances pride, improves recruiting, and increases readiness.

According to an Army Times poll conducted in the fall of 2018, of 32,000 respondents, 72 percent said they were ready to accept the new uniform, while 28 percent said they were satisfied with the current Army service blue uniform. Soldiers did express concerns about the requirement for an additional uniform and the cost associated with acquiring it. The Army attempted to address this in its official release announcing the rollout on Nov. 11, 2018, stating that the uniform would be cost-neutral for enlisted Soldiers, who would be able to purchase the new “business casual uniform” with their existing annual clothing allowance. The Army also stated that the new uniform would come at “no additional cost to the American taxpayer” and would be made in the United States.

Iraq War Study

In 2018, Milley was involved in deciding whether the Army would release a controversial study of the 2003-2006 Iraq War. Milley reportedly decided he wanted to read the 1,300-page, 500

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