FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2017

Governor Mary Fallin Names Adjutant General

OKLAHOMA CITY – Governor Mary Fallin today named Assistant Adjutant Brig. Gen. Michael C. Thompson to serve as Oklahoma’s adjutant general. His appointment takes effect Nov. 15.

Thompson currently serves as Oklahoma’s secretary of safety and security and as commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. Thompson will be the first African-American to serve as the Oklahoma National Guard adjutant general.

Thompson succeeds Maj. Gen. Robbie L. Asher, who resigned in August. Brig. Gen. Louis Wilham has been serving as interim adjutant general.

Thompson will command the Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard, and will continue to serve on the governor’s Cabinet as secretary of the military.

“General Thompson is a proven leader with tremendous organizational and leadership skills,” said Fallin. “He has demonstrated his abilities during the past seven years he has been Oklahoma’s public safety commissioner. He is well respected by troopers of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and by the soldiers and airmen in our Oklahoma National Guard. He will continue to serve Oklahoma and our country well in his new position.”

“I appreciate Governor Fallin’s trust and confidence in me,” Thompson said. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the state of Oklahoma as public safety commissioner and as a longtime member of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. I am deeply humbled by this new opportunity.”

Thompson enlisted in the Oklahoma Army National Guard in 1983 and was commissioned as an officer in 1986 through the Oklahoma Military Department’s officer candidate school. He was promoted to brigadier general in 2014. Thompson has served as land component commander with the Oklahoma National Guard; chief of staff with the Oklahoma National Guard; and commander of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 90th Troop Command. Thompson is a combat veteran of two deployments to Iraq in 2003 and 2008 as well as an integral part of the responding Oklahoma Guard units to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

He has commanded at the company, battalion and brigade level. His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal; Meritorious Service Medal: Iraq Campaign Medal; Combat Infantry Badge; Combat Action Badge; and numerous others. He has a bachelor’s degree from Langston University, a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University, and an additional master’s degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.

Thompson and his wife, Debbie, reside in Edmond. They have two children, Maj. Brandon Thompson, serving in the Army, and Jared Thompson, an Afghanistan combat veteran currently in medical school. Thompson’s daughter-in-law, Roxie, also serves as a captain on active duty in the Army.

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Brig. Gen. Michael C. Thompson

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