Todd Lecture Series

2026 Todd Lecture Featured Speaker

GEN John F. Kelly

 

General Kelly was born and raised in Boston. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1970 and was discharged as a sergeant in 1972 after serving in an infantry company with the 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts in 1976, he was commissioned and returned to the 2nd Marine Division, where he served as a rifle and weapons platoon commander, company executive officer, assistant operations officer, and infantry company commander.

Sea duty followed in Mayport, Florida, at which time he served aboard the aircraft carriers USS Forrestal and USS Independence. In 1980, then Captain Kelly transferred to the U.S. Army Infantry Officer Advanced Course in Fort Benning, Georgia. After graduation, he was assigned to Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., serving there from 1981 through 1984.

Captain Kelly returned to the 2nd Marine Division in 1984 to command rifle and weapons companies in the infantry. Promoted to the rank of major in 1987, he served as the battalion operations officer. In 1987, Major Kelly transferred to the Basic School, Quantico, Virginia, serving first as the head of the Offensive Tactics Section, Tactics Group, and later assuming the duties of the director of the Infantry Officer Course. After three years of instructing the finest young men and women this country produces to be Marine officers, he attended the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the School for Advanced Warfare, both also located at Quantico.

Completing duty under instruction and selected for lieutenant colonel, he was assigned as commanding officer, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California. Holding this command position for two years, Lieutenant Colonel Kelly returned to the East Coast in 1994 to attend the National War College in Washington, D.C. Upon graduation in 1995, he was selected to serve as the Commandant of the Marine Corps liaison officer to the U.S. House of Representatives, Capitol Hill, where he was promoted to colonel.

In 1999, after completion of his duties on the Hill, he was transferred to joint duty serving as the special assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in Mons, Belgium. Returning to the U.S. in 2001, he was assigned to a third tour of duty at Camp Lejeune, now as the assistant chief of staff for operations (G-3) with the 2nd Marine Division. In 2002, selected to the rank of brigadier general and, with less than a year on the East Coast, he again served with the 1st Marine Division, this time as the assistant division commander, and helped ready the command for war. The majority of the two years with the division was spent fighting in Iraq.

Upon return in 2004, he was assigned duties in Washington, D.C., as the legislative assistant to the commandant and deputy assistant legislative assistant to the secretary of the Navy until 2007. 

Promoted to major general while serving in the Pentagon, he then returned to Camp Pendleton and took up duties as the commanding general, I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), deploying back to Iraq in early 2008 for a 12-plus-month tour in western Iraq (Al Anbar and western Ninewa provinces). Almost immediately after his return, he was confirmed by the Senate and promoted to lieutenant general and was privileged to command Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North from October 2009 to March 2011.

A second assignment as a lieutenant general had him return to the Pentagon to serve as the senior military assistant to Defense Secretaries Gates and Panetta until October 2012. Again confirmed by the Senate, he was then promoted to the rank of general, assuming command of United States Southern Command on November 19, 2012, stepping down from that command on January 14, 2016. He then retired after nearly 45 years of service to the nation as a United States Marine, both as an enlisted infantryman and an infantry officer.

Still focused on serving the nation, its people, and the Constitution and rule of law that he had sworn his sacred oath to on numerous occasions over his 45 years in uniform, he was asked to join the incoming administration as the secretary of, Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Senate confirmed and sworn in on January 20, 2017, he became the fifth secretary of DHS, where he served until assuming the duties as White House chief of staff in July 2017. He left this position and government service in January 2019 but continues to work with organizations like the Department of Defense, Marine Corps War College, National Defense University, and federal law enforcement in various roles as advisor, senior mentor, and seminar teacher.