Judd H. Lyons

On June 26, 2018 Lyons began an assignment as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Reserve Integration) in the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. He was officially appointed to the position on February 17th, 2019. As Deputy Assistant Secretary, Lyons is responsible to provide supervision of Department of Defense manpower policies and programs and integration of reserve affairs with active duty.

After retiring from the Army National Guard, on August 7, 2017 Lyons was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as Director of the Defense Personnel and Family Support Center. Lyons' responsibilities included includes liaising with the Reserve Forces Policy Board, the Reserve Component Chiefs, and state Governors as well as exercising primary responsibility for unique Reserve Component programs to include the DoD STARBASE program, National Guard Youth Challenge, international Reserve Component programs, and Innovative Readiness Training. He also provided policy oversight and guidance to the missions of the Defense Personnel and Family Support Center (DPFSC).

In June 2015, Lyons was assigned to the Joint Staff and detailed to the Department of State with assignment as Military Deputy to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this post he provided guidance, advice, and leadership on U.S. security policy and activities throughout South Asia. In May 2017, he was assigned to duty as a special assistant to the Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau. Lyons retired from the Army National Guard in July 2017.

In 2009, Governor Dave Heineman selected Lyons to serve as Adjutant General, succeeding Timothy J. Kadavy, who had been selected to serve as Deputy Director of the Army National Guard. In May, 2013, Lyons was selected for the position of Deputy Director of the Army National Guard, again succeeding Kadavy. Lyons was scheduled to assume the Deputy Director's position on July 13, 2013, and Brigadier General Walter E. Fountain acted as Deputy Director in the interim. Governor Heineman announced in July, 2013 that he had chosen Brigadier General Daryl L. Bohac, Nebraska's Assistant Adjutant General for Air, to succeed Lyons as Adjutant General.

Lyons began his new duties as Deputy Director of the Army National Guard on July 13, 2013 and Bohac took over as Adjutant General on July 15. In January, 2014, Lieutenant General William E. Ingram, Jr. retired as Director of the Army National Guard and Lyons was appointed Acting Director, pending the selection of a permanent successor. Kadavy was nominated as Director of the Army National Guard in March 2015, and confirmed by the United States Senate later that month. He assumed his new duties on March 27, and Lyons resumed his duties as Deputy Director. Lyons received the Distinguished Service Medal for his service as Acting Director and Deputy Director.

Lyons received his commission as a second lieutenant of Infantry after completing Officer Candidate School at the Nebraska Military Academy in 1983. He served in various command and staff assignments in Nebraska, and his command positions include: Company D, 1st Battalion, 195th Armor (1989-1990); Nebraska Army National Guard Training Site (2003-2004); and 92nd Troop Command, (2008-2009). He is a veteran of the War on Terrorism. From November 2006 to June 2007, Lyons served as Commander of the 209th Regional Security Assistance Command in Afghanistan as part of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix V.

Judd Henry Lyons (born May 29, 1962) is a retired Army National Guard general officer who attained the rank of major general. After retiring from the military, he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service on August 7, 2017. He is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Reserve Integration). In this role, he serves as the principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASD (M&RA)) in support of the ASD's role of providing overall supervision of manpower and reserve affairs for the Department of Defense (DoD). He is responsible for both the seamless integration of reserve affairs across DoD and strategic engagement on all Reserve Component matters.

Lyons was born in Minnesota, on May 29, 1962. In 1980 he graduated from the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri, and enlisted in the Nebraska Army National Guard. He received a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree in Human Resources Management from Bellevue University in 1994. In 2005, he graduated from the United States Army War College with a Master of Strategic Studies degree. He is also a graduate of the George C. Marshall Center Senior Executive Seminar and the National and International Security Course of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.