Colonel James C. (J. C.) King

James C. (J. C.) King retired from the Army’s Ordnance Corps in April 2001 as a Colonel with 30 years of military service. Upon retirement he re-entered government in 2001 as Special Assistant for Munitions, in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health under an Intergovernmental Personnel Act Agreement between the Logistics Management Institute (LMI) and the U.S. Army. In March 2007, he was selected to serve as the Director for Munitions and Chemical Matters with the same office.

He retired from Government service in 2021 with a total of 50 years of service to the U.S. Army. During his thirty-year military career, he served as an Infantry Officer with the 1st Special Forces (Airborne), and subsequently as an Ordnance (Ammunition) Officer who had nine years of command of ammunition units, both conventional and nuclear, from company to brigade level. He was also assigned as the Army Operations Officer to the Department of Defense Nuclear Surety Inspection Team and to the Army’s Office of the Inspector General as an investigator.

He completed his active Army career as the Division Chief, Munitions Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Headquarters, Department of the Army where he was responsible for life-cycle management of munitions and for development of Army and DoD policy for explosives safety and munitions-related environmental issues including the U.S. Environmental Agency’s (EPA) Military Munitions Rule, the cleanup of unexploded ordnance (UXO), and range sustainment. Before assignment to the Army Staff, he commanded Crane Army Ammunition Activity, one of the Army's government-owned, government-operated munitions industrial and depot complexes. As Special Assistant for Munitions and subsequently as Director for Munitions and Chemical Matters, he was responsible for analysis and development of policy, both Army- and DoD-level, related to munitions-life-cycle management; explosives and chemical safety; the conduct of munitions responses (the cleanup of munitions and explosives of concern, to include chemical munitions); the support of explosives and munitions emergencies; and management of sustainable range management.

He also served as Technical Monitor for several research projects related to the sea disposal of munitions. He was the Army lead for development of policy governing DoD's Military Munitions Response Program, DoD's Implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency's Military Munitions Rule, the Military Munitions Response Prioritization Protocol (32 CFR, Part 179) and its accompanying training program and primer; and DoD; and Army policy for the management of Material Potentially Presenting an Explosive Hazard (MPPEH). He was also responsible for developing both DoD explosives safety criteria governing UXO, the processing and management of MPPEH, munitions responses; and the Army's 3Rs (Recognize, Retreat, Report) Explosives Safety Education Program.

During both his military career and as a Department of the Army Civilian, he was the Army Voting Board Member, Department of Defense (DoD) Explosives Safety Board, a position he has held for approximately 25 years, and the Army lead for a variety of DoD and intergovernmental committees.