Lieutenant General James Mingus graduated from Winona State University in May 1985 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry.
LTG Mingus served as assistant professor of military science for the Rocky Top Battalion at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, from 1997-1999, making the battalion one of the very best in the country. He served as the MS III Instructor and Ranger Company advisor. In addition, he coached, mentored, and developed the 1998 Ranger Challenge Team that achieved first place in the 2nd ROTC region and produced some of the top cadets in the nation according to their National Order of Merit scores. Due to LTG Mingus’s influence, many of these cadets branched combat arms and earned the coveted Ranger tab. Others went on to join Special Operations units and to command active-duty battalions.
After his time in the Rocky Top Battalion, LTG Mingus continued his meteoric rise through the officer ranks. He served as commander, 4th Ranger Training BN; commander, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado; deputy commanding general (maneuver), 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado; director of the mission command center of excellence in United States Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. LTG Mingus commanded 82nd Airborne Division; served as J3, director of operations of the Joint Staff and is currently director, Joint Staff, in Washington DC.
Mingus and his wife, Amy, reside in northern Virginia.
