GEN (Ret.) Raymond A. “Tony” Thomas, III was a 4-star Commanding General of the more than 85,000 men and women who comprise U.S. Special Operations Command.
During his storied 40-year career, GEN Thomas was involved in nearly every significant U.S. military operation, including combat in both Grenada and Panama.
As a member of the elite 75th Ranger Regiment:
- He served in Desert Storm with the Joint Task Force responsible for defeating Iraqi SCUD missile attacks on Israel.
- He assisted the Colombian National Police in killing the notorious narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar. • He conducted operations to capture Serbian war criminals.
He is the only officer to have commanded a squadron of the Delta Force and a battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
GEN Thomas deployed numerous times to combat arenas, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Serving overseas for portions of every single year of his military career since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he was the second-in-command for the mission that killed the terrorist Usama Bin Laden.
Before his promotion as the commander of USSOCOM and taking the reins of one of the United States’ most elite combatant commands, GEN Thomas commanded the Joint Special Operations Command, served as the Director of Military Operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, and created and commanded the first Special Operations Joint Task Force in Afghanistan.
Always seeking solutions to future battles, GEN Thomas drove USSOCOM’s adaption of applied Artificial Intelligence and Unmanned Capabilities — a passion he has carried over to his post-service career working within the defense industry to ensure today’s soldiers can fight and win tomorrow’s wars.
GEN Thomas currently serves as the Chairman of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that provides full-cost education scholarships to the children of our nation’s Fallen Special Operations heroes.
GEN Thomas and his wife have two sons and five grandchildren. Both sons graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in combat on multiple occasions.
