Thomas James

Tom James retired from the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant General after 43 years of service to the nation as enlisted and officer in the medical, special operations, aviation, strategy, and space operations career fields. He last served as the Deputy Commander of United States Space Command (USSPACECOM).

Tom has an expansive 25-year background in space operations as an Army Space Operations Officer. His assignments over 9 years as a general officer included Deputy Commander, Combined/Joint Force Space Component Command; Commander, Combined Joint Task Force-Space Operations; Commander, Joint Task Force-Space Defense; Director of Operations, USSPACECOM; Director of Operations, Plans, and Exercises, Joint Force Space Component Command; and Deputy Commander, Joint Functional Component Command for Space. He also commanded the Army’s only space battalion and space brigade with elements deployed around the world.

Tom is one of the military’s top strategic experts at planning and executing space operations across the full spectrum of conflict. Orbital warfare is his forte, both in conducting operations with current capabilities and in the design and development of future systems and doctrine for future space warfare. He also gained a strong background in capability and doctrine development as the Deputy of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Future Warfare Center. After completing the top USAF strategy course, he served in numerous planning positions at the U.S. Army Corps, Joint Task Force, and Component-level in Army, Air Force, Special Operations, and Joint units.

A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Senior Executive Fellowship Program, Tom holds a Master of International Relations degree from Auburn University at Montgomery. He also has master’s degrees from the following courses from the U.S. Air Force’s Air University: the Air Command and Staff College, the School of Advanced Air and Space Strategy, and Air, Space, and Cyber War College. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern Mississippi and is currently working on his post-master’s Space Systems Engineering Certification through the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.