Our forty-fifth recipient, Colonel Dustin J. Byrum, is currently attending the 2024 AMP at Harvard Business School and serves as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Commandant for Aviation and is the former Commanding Officer of Marine Aircraft Group 31 in Beaufort, SC, and Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 in Miramar, CA.  As an F/A-18 pilot, Dustin has extensive operational experience both land and carrier-based including combat missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.  He has nearly 3,000 hours in fighter aircraft and is an instructor in both F/A-18s and F-35s.  He has also served as the Air Officer and Forward Air Controller with both 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion where he deployed to Herat, Afghanistan.  Dustin’s staff assignments include Air Officer Department Head with Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One, Program and Budget Analyst with the Joint Staff J-8, and Deputy Executive Assistant to the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Dustin graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy in 1998 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  He is also a graduate of the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Course (TOPGUN), the Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course (WTI), and a distinguished graduate of the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.

Dustin and his wife, Christine, have three children.