DNWS receives new commandant

  • Published
  • By Patricia Chavez
  • Defense Threat Reduction Agency
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Army Col. John Mark Mattox assumed his new post as the Defense Nuclear Weapons School commandant in mid-August 2006.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency's education and training center provides unique academic training in nuclear weapons, radiological accident response and proliferation-related issues for the Department of Defense and other federal and state agencies.

As the DNWS commandant, Colonel Mattox is looking forward to working to enhance the quality and relevance of instruction at the DNWS.

Colonel Mattox is no stranger to the nuclear world. He served as the deputy chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction division and chief of the Nuclear Policy and Surety branch at the U.S. European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. During this time, he had responsibility for all WMD-related issues for more than 91 nations in a 10 million square mile area of the world.

As an educator and nuclear policy officer for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, he regularly lectured on nuclear policy issues at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany.

He has also served on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Maryland.

Colonel Mattox will be involved in all aspects of the school's continuous development, and he noted that the school has as its priority mission to offer relevant, timely, high-quality instruction that reflects the demands of the volatile, dynamic world of WMD. Moreover, he said the school is "working hard to leverage capabilities in terms of education and training opportunities that are available outside of the DNWS -- perhaps even outside of DOD -- to provide the most comprehensive training opportunity that can be obtained for our training audience."

A recent initiative, the Defense Threat Reduction University, will incorporate DTRA agencywide programs, along with the formation of a training alliance in support of the combating WMD mission by fostering partnerships with executive departments, national laboratories and research universities. This will include agencies working in parallel, inside and outside of government, to address WMD-related problems.

"I'm very happy to be here. I'm very proud of what this school has accomplished," Colonel Mattox says. "The faculty of this school is an assemblage of professionals who are extremely knowledgeable, technically qualified and dedicated to their calling. I look forward to learning from them and working together to building upon the foundation those before us have laid in order to make even greater contributions to the nation."