Retired Army Brigadier General Mike Eastman

Brigadier General (ret) Mike Eastman is the Executive Director of the Onward Ops military transition support program, a national non-profit dedicated to reducing Veteran suicide and helping members of the Armed Forces transition successfully to civilian life. Over a 30-year military career that included combat deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, he led several major initiatives, to include the creation of Army Futures Command, development of the Strategic Studies Group (the Army’s in-house think tank) and as a Director of the National Military Command Center. Mike’s final assignment was as the last Commanding General of Train, Advise, Assist Command-South in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he advised the political and military leaders of six provinces, ran an international airport, and transferred the country’s largest coalition base back to the Afghans. BG (ret) Eastman holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a masters degrees in Military Science from the Command and General Staff College, and a master’s degree and PhD (ABD) in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served as a Senior Fellow at the Institute of World Politics. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Interagency Journal, Parameters and numerous professional journals. He is married to Hai, a Naval Academy graduate and member of the Secret Service, and is the proud father of three children.