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Colonel (Ret) Christopher Miller became a public figure
almost overnight with his appointment by President Donald Trump
on November 9, 2020 to be the Acting Secretary of Defense.
Millier was a career Special Forces soldier serving as a
detachment, company, and battalion commander in the 5th Special
Forces Group.
Miller was apppointed by Trump after the firing of Defense
Secretary Mark Esper. The tension between Esper and Trump had
grown over the past several months leading up to the dismissal
of the SECDEF.
Service Since Retirement From Army
Since his retirement from U.S. Army Special Forces in 2014
Miller has served in several capacities at senior levels within
the intelligence and defense community.
After his military retirement he worked as a defense
contractor providing clandestine Special Operations and
Intelligence expertise directly to the Under Secretaries of
Defense for Intelligence and Policy.
March 2018 - December 2019. Miller served as the Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Counterterrorism and Transnational Threats at the National
Security Council (NSC). He was responsible for strategic level
policy making and implementation and support to senior NSC and
White House leadership.
January 2020 - August 2020. Miller served as the Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and
Combating Terrorism. The office is responsible for
developing policy guidance and oversee the implementation of all
DOD policies, strategies, and plans related to special
operations and combating terrorism. Some of these
responsiblities include the oversight of employment of SOF in
CT, UW, DA, SR, FID, and counterproliferation. During this time
he also performed the duties of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict
(SO/LIC).
August 2020 to November 2020. Miller served as the Director
of the
National Counterterrorism Center. The NCTC is aligned under
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The
NCTC Director is appointed by the President and confirmed by the
Senate. He serves as the principal adviser on intelligence
operations relating to counterterrorism and reports directly to
the President for CT strategic operational planning activities.
Army Career
Chris Miller served in the military from 1983 to 2014. He
began his military career as an enlisted infantryman in the Army
Reserve in 1983 and also served in the District of Columbia
National Guard as a Military Policeman. In 1987 he was
commissioned as an Infantry Lieutenant through the R.O.T.C.
while attending George Washington Unversity. In 1993 he
transferred to Special Forces where he served in numerous
command and staff positions.
Chris Miller participated in the initial combat operations in
Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom - OEF) in 2001 while
serving as a company commander in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special
Forces Group. His company and SFODA's were deployed primarily in
southern Afghanistan - Miller arrived in southern Afghanistan in
December 2001.
He took part in the invasion of Iraq (Operations Iraqi
Freedom - OIF) in 2003 - also while serving in the 5th Special
Forces Group.
Miller had subsequent deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq to
include commanding Special Operations Task Force - Central in
Iraq in 2006-2007 while commanding 2nd Battalion, 5th Special
Forces Group battalion.
He also has extensive intergency and joint special operations
experience. He spent part of the later part of his Special
Forces career detailed to a U.S. intelligence organization. One
of his last assignments was as Director for Special Operations
and Irregular Warfare in SO/LIC.
Formal Education
In addition to being a graduate of Pineland University,
Miller has a bachelor's degree in history from the George
Washinton Univeristy (1987). He holds a Master of Arts degree in
national security studies from the Naval War College (2001) and
is a graduate of the Naval College of Command and Staff as well
as the Army War College.
References
DoD. Biography of Christopher C. Miller, Acting Secretary of
Defense.
https://www.defense.gov/Our-Story/Biographies/Biography/Article/2111192/christopher-c-miller/
NCTC. Biography of Chris Miller, Director, National
Counterterrorism Center.
Accessed on November 10, 2020.
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/nctc-who-we-are/director-nctc
Questionnaire for Completion by Presidential Nominees,
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, United States
Senate, June 5, 2020, PDF, 13 pages.
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/q-cmiller-072220.pdf
Christopher C. Miller, WikipediA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Miller
News Articles about Chris Miller
November 10, 2020.
"What does the new acting SECDEF mean for the war in
Afghanistan?", by Meghann Meyers, Military Times.
November 10, 2020.
"The Special Forces Roots of Acting SECDEF Christopher Miller",
by Stavros Atlamazoglou, SANDBOXX.
November 10, 2020.
"New Acting SecDef is a Former 'Horse Soldier' Who Played Key
Role in Afghanistan Invasion", by Hope Hodge Seck,
Military.com.
November 9, 2020.
"More Officials Leave Pentagon; Special Ops Office Gets Some
Needed Help", Breaking Defense. Miller returns to
the Pentagon to help fill a key special operations position.
November 10, 2002.
"A Bulletproof Mind", The New York Times Magazine.
Published Works and Conversations by Chris Miller
October 19, 2020.
"Special Forces needs to go back to basics to win against China
and Russia", by Chris Miller and Doug Livermore,
Task & Purpose.
October 8, 2020. "Online Event: A Conversation with NCTC
Director Christopher Miller", Center for Strategic &
International Studies (CSIS). Miller is interviewed by Seth
Jones in this 40 minute long video.
https://www.csis.org/events/online-event-conversation-nctc-director-christopher-miller
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