Ryan D. McCarthy


Ryan D. McCarthy is an American politician, business executive and former United States Army Ranger serving as the 24th and current United States Secretary of the Army.

Education and military service

McCarthy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history from the Virginia Military Institute. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.
A former United States Army Ranger, he served in the 75th Ranger Regiment during the United States invasion of Afghanistan.

Private sector career

Early in his career, McCarthy worked at The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. He became a professional staff member on the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. McCarthy later served as a special assistant to former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, where he was "the right hand of the Defense secretary with front-office access."
McCarthy joined Lockheed Martin in 2011, where he worked on programs including the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. He most recently served as the vice president of the sustainment program for the F-35 program.

Department of the Army

In June 2017, President Donald Trump nominated him to become the Under Secretary of the Army. He was confirmed as Under Secretary of the Army by the United States Senate on August 1, 2017, by voice vote.
While Under Secretary, he served as acting Secretary of the Army twice. The first was from August 3 to November 20, 2017. The second was from June 24 to July 15, 2019, while Secretary of the Army Mark Esper was acting as Secretary of Defense.
The President nominated McCarthy to become the Secretary of the Army on June 21, 2019. He was confirmed on September 26, 2019 and was sworn in on September 30, 2019 as Secretary of the Army.
In 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, McCarthy activated the D.C. National Guard, which included the use of aviation assets to support local and Federal law enforcement efforts. The D.C. National Guard is the only National Guard unit, out of all of the 54 states and territories, which reports only to the President. The Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard is subordinate solely to the President of the United States.  This authority to activate the D.C. National Guard has been delegated, by the President, to the Secretary of Defense and further delegated to the Secretary of the Army.  During the protests, McCarthy gave the order to deploy helicopters in response to the protests. On June 2, Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper ordered an inquiry into the incident, which as of 2020 is under investigation.