Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley, Jr. retired from the U.S. Army in November 2020 after over 36 years of active-duty service. He assumed his last duty position on 3 October 2017 when he became the 21st Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (D(A). He formerly served as the Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2, where he was the senior advisor to the Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff for all aspects of intelligence, counterintelligence, and security.
Lieutenant General Ashley is a career army military intelligence officer with assignments at Fort Bragg, NC, Washington, DC, Fort Gordon, GA, MacDill Air Force Base, FL, Izmir, Turkey, and deployments to Operation JOINT FORGE, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Iraq, and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, Afghanistan. He has commanded at the company, battalion, squadron, and brigade levels with six combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a squadron commander, brigade commander, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (J-2). His commands include the 206th Military Intelligence Battalion, Fort Gordon, GA, Intelligence Squadron, Office of Military Support, Washington, DC, and the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade (Airborne), XVIII Airborne Corps.
Other key assignments include the Director of Intelligence, United States Army Joint Special Operations Command; the Director of Intelligence, United States Central Command; the Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence, International Security Assistance Force and Director of Intelligence, United States Forces, Afghanistan; and Commanding General, the United States Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, AZ.
Lieutenant General Ashley has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Appalachian State University, a master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University (formerly known as the Defense Intelligence College), and a master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.