Lieutenant Colonel Chris Mellon, USMC, has served at Command and Staff College since July 2023. His previous assignment was a student at Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. A Special Operations, reconnaissance, and infantry officer, LtCol Mellon has served in very command position from the platoon to battalion and a variety of staff assignments up to the MARFOR level and served four combat tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He was commissioned into the Marine Corps in 2003 from the United States Naval Academy and holds a Master of Science in Defense Analysis with a specialty in Irregular Warfare from Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.