Lieutenant General Bryan P. Fenton assumed duties as the Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense on August 12, 2019. Born in New Orleans, LA, he grew up in Seymour, TN and was commissioned in May 1987 as a U.S. Army Infantry Officer from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Lieutenant General Fenton’s assignments include: Infantry Platoon Leader and Company Executive Officer in 4th Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment; Special Forces Detachment Commander and Battalion Operations Officer in 1st Battalion 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne); Battalion Commander at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School; Brigade Commander; J-3 for the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC); Deputy Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy Department of the Army; Deputy Commanding General – (Operations) for the 25th Infantry Division; G-3 for U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC); Commander, Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC); and Deputy Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM).

Lieutenant General Fenton has served in multiple geographic combatant commands including: SOUTHCOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM, CENTCOM, INDOPACOM and participated in Operations Joint Forge (Bosnia); Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan/Africa); Iraqi Freedom, and Odyssey Dawn (Libya). Lieutenant General Fenton’s military courses include: the U.S. Army Infantry Officer Basic and Advance Courses; Special Forces and Ranger courses; the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; Special Forces Language training (Spanish) and US Army Jump Master & Military Free Fall Schools. Lieutenant General Fenton holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from University of Notre Dame and a Masters degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS. He attended negotiation/leadership training at Harvard University Business/Law Schools and served as the 2009 Army Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Lieutenant General Fenton and his wife Dawn have two daughters.