Monday, November 18, 2024

General Bryan P. Fenton

Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command

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Charles Phillips
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RECOGNIZE
Trustee, ECNY

General Bryan P. Fenton is a career Special Forces (Green Beret) Officer. He currently serves as the 13th Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), located at MacDill Air Force Base, FL. He oversees all Special Operations for the U.S. Department of Defense with 70,000 Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Special Operations personnel and an annual budget of $14 billion.

Before assuming command of USSOCOM, General Fenton served as the Commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), headquartered at Fort Liberty, NC. Prior to that, he was the Senior Military Assistant for two U.S. Secretaries of Defense.

General Fenton’s other general officer assignments include: Deputy Commander of U.S. Indo- Pacific Command; Commander of U.S. Special Operations – Pacific; and Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.

He has commanded at all levels and his Joint and Special Operations assignments include: Director of Operations (J3) at the Joint Special Operations Command; Brigade, Battalion, and Squadron Commands; multiple overseas Task Force Commands; Detachment Commander and Operations Officer in 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne); as well as Infantry Rifle Platoon Leader and Executive Officer in Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 502 Infantry Regiment (Berlin).

General Fenton deployed multiple times, participating in Operation Joint Forge (Bosnia); Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan/Africa); Operations Iraqi Freedom and Inherent Resolve (Iraq); and Operation Pacific Eagle (Philippines). He has served in multiple Areas of Responsibility including U.S. Southern Command; U.S. European Command; U.S. Africa Command; U.S. Central Command; and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

His U.S. military training includes: the U.S. Army Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses; the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course; U.S. Army Ranger School; Special Forces Language Training (Spanish); Special Forces Military Free Fall (MFF); along with French Commando Training and the Ecuadorian Jungle Training Course.

General Fenton’s awards include: the French Commando Badge; the Cruz de la Victoria Medal from Chile; Princess of Thailand awarded Thai Jumpmaster Wings; the University of Notre Dame’s Moose Krause Service Award and its Rev. William Corby Award for Distinguished Military Service; and the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) Eisenhower Award.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration (Marketing) from the University of Notre Dame; a Master’s Degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and was the 2009-2010 U.S. Army Fellow at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He also attended negotiation and leadership courses at Harvard Business and Law Schools, as well as the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

General Fenton is from Seymour, Tennessee. He and his wife, Dawn, have two adult daughters.