Mr. Montgomery serves as the policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee. He completed a thirty two-year career as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, retiring as a Rear Admiral in 2017. His flag officer assignments included deputy director of plans, policy and strategy, U.S. European Command; commander of Carrier Strike Group 5 embarked on the USS George Washington stationed in Japan; and director of operations at United States Pacific Command. Rear Admiral Montgomery’s other seagoing assignments included serving as the first commanding officer of the destroyer USS McCampbell, a reactor officer on the USS Nimitz, and as commodore of Destroyer Squadron 15 stationed in Japan. Ashore, he was selected as a White House Fellow and was assigned to the National Security Council, serving as Director for Transnational Threats from 1998 to 2000. Mr. Montgomery graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 with a B.A. and an M.A. in history. He subsequently earned an M.A. in history from Oxford University.