United States Secretary of Defence
Lloyd Austin, 69, is a retired US Army four-star general who serves as the 28th United States secretary of defence. Nominated by President Joe Biden, he is the first African American to serve in that role. Austin was raised by a devout Catholic mother and remains practicing.
General and former Joint Chief of Staff
Martin Edward Dempsey, 70, served as the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is a retired US Army general who also previously served as the Chief of Staff of the Army. He attended John S Burke Catholic High School in New York and holds a master’s degree in literature from Duke University, writing his thesis on the Irish literary revival. He has given a lecture on faith in geopolitics for the Duke Catholic Center at the Thomas International Centre.
General and former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff
General Joseph Francis Dunford Jr, 66, served as the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military adviser to the president, secretary of defence and National Security Council from 2015 to 2019. A native of Boston, he graduated from Saint Michael’s College and was commissioned in 1977. In 2020, he headlined the Celebration of the Priesthood dinner, an annual event that honours the nearly 540 active and senior priests in good standing across Greater Boston.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Mark Milley, 64, has served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces since his appointment by Donald Trump in 2019. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from 2015 to 2019, and held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces throughout his military career, serving in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq and Afghanistan. Milley is of Irish descent and was raised in a Catholic family.
