Notable Alumni Highlight: Judd Lyons ʼ80, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Integration

Structure and discipline — the mainstays of a military school education — have been the keys to Maj. Gen. Judd Lyons’ ascent up the ladder of success. Currently serving as deputy assistant secretary of defense for reserve integration, Lyons has taken these constants to heart as he embodies the mission of Missouri Military Academy.

“The structure and discipline in which I was immersed at MMA profoundly impacted me,” Lyons says. “The MMA environment helped me grow as a person.”

Lyons describes his high school sophomore self as “semi-willing” to enter MMA. He recalls the day his parents presented him with several brochures from military academies. “My parents told me in no uncertain terms that they loved me; however, I was going to attend a military academy beginning my junior year,” he recalls. “That said, the choice of which military academy was left to me.”

A few site visits later, Lyons settled on MMA to reshape his life. “I think I knew deep down that I needed to have a change and probably had a small amount of resentment initially,” he says. “But I feel I quickly adapted to the MMA regimen, and it definitely made a difference academically, and in my growth and maturity.”

Lyons thrived in the structured environment of the Academy. In his two years at MMA, he lettered in varsity wrestling and played Echo Company football; honors included the academic fourragère for high academic achievement and the Military Wreath & Star signifying the top 10% of military science students. “The MMA environment helped me grow as a person,” he says. “Although I made a decision or two at MMA that I regret, I feel I did learn from them. I am absolutely convinced that I was better prepared for Army basic training due to the many hours of drill and ceremonies, customs and military courtesies exposure while at MMA.”

One of his best memories was winning the Best Drilled New Cadet award in the fall of 1978.

“My mom and dad were in the stands watching and my mom was video recording the competition,” he recalls. “Initially — and I’ve always found this amusing — she had the camera zoomed in on somebody else (we all looked alike, I guess). She finally found me as the numbers were whittled down. When Col. Ardie McClure stopped in front of the other final cadet and me and then he eliminated my last competitor, her hands started shaking and I pointed them out to Col. McClure. I have no doubt that this was a threshold moment for them — and me. I still have the Best Drilled New Cadet plaque in my house alongside my other military service memorabilia.”

After graduation from MMA in 1980, Lyons returned to his home state and enlisted in the Nebraska Army National Guard as a private first class, the accelerated rank made possible by his JROTC completion. He earned a bachelor’s degree in human resources management from Bellevue College.

“I noticed, however, that following Army basic training and return to civilian life, including college, that I had a tendency to backslide without that structure and discipline,” he says. “It wasn’t until I was selected for full-time employment in the National Guard that I returned to a structured and disciplined environment. I was then able to draw upon more fully the values and ethos first instilled at MMA.”

Lyons made the Army National Guard his career. After earning a commission as a second lieutenant in the National Guard’s Officer Candidate School, he moved up the ranks to colonel before his deployment to Afghanistan from November 2006 to June 2007 as a commander, responsible for operations, training, integration and the welfare of more than 300 soldiers, sailors, airmen, coalition partners and civilian contractors. His service included developing joint operations and a common operating picture between the 209th Afghan Army Corps and the Afghan National Police throughout the nine provinces of northern Afghanistan.

Returning to Lincoln, Lyons served as chief of staff for the Nebraska Army National Guard and rose in rank to major general as adjutant general and director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency. He moved to the Pentagon in 2013, where he served as deputy director and then acting director of the Army National Guard. In 2015, the Department of Defense Joint Staff detailed Lyons to the Department of State for a two-year assignment as deputy and senior military adviser to the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Although he labels his early college effort as “lackluster,” Lyons later earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He is also a graduate of CAPSTONE General and Flag Officer Course, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies Senior Executive Seminar, the Senior Executives in National and International Security Course at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, the Army Strategic Leadership Development Program and the Defense Department’s Vanguard Senior Executive Development Program.

He retired from the Army in 2017 as a major general. For the past four years, following appointment in the Senior Executive Service, Lyons has worked for the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. In his current role as deputy assistant secretary of defense for reserve integration, he is the principal adviser to the assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs, responsible for both the integration of reserve affairs across the Defense Department and strategic engagement on all reserve component matters.

He says he reflects often on his MMA experience and well remembers classmates Greg Parker, Price Laird, Darryl Locust, Mike Darling, Afshin Emadi, Derek Kennedy, Brad Henderson and Kurt Bilsel, among others.

“MMA introduced me to the concept of selfless service,” Lyons says. “When I was appointed adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard in 2009 and upon my retirement from uniformed service in 2017, I had the opportunity to deliver speeches. A key — and most heartfelt — point I made in both speeches was the fact that my parents’ decision to have me attend a military academy, and my experience at MMA, changed my life. The fact that I had reached both of these milestones was directly resultant from that decision. MMA set me on a new and dramatically different course in life. MMA shaped my view of others and my approach to adulthood in a truly positive way.”