Commander, U.S. Northern Command

Ray John McWilliams was born and raised as a Catholic in Chicago, Illinois. He went to the Marquette University where he majored in International Studies and being apart of the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. 

After being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1968, McWilliams would be trained as an platoon leader before being assigned to 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment. He would soon see combat in Vietnam in 1969 and afterwards he would deploy to Vietnam in 1972 as a Company Commander. 

After his second tour to Vietnam, he would be retrained as an Marine Air Defense Control Officer and becoming the Executive Officer the Marine Tactical Air Control Squadron 2. In 1974, he would take the position as the Executive Officer of the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit where he take part in Operation Frequent Wind, which was the evacuation of Saigon in 1975. 

After completing his time in the 31st MAU, he would become a Marine Air-Ground Task Force Liaison Officer in, at the time, North American Air Defense Command until 1990 before joining Central Command as air defense and MAGTF expert. During his time at CENTCOM, he would deployed a total of 4 times to Iraq in 1991, Afghanistan 2001, and lastly Iraq in 2003 and 2004. 

He would take take command as the Deputy Commander of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic before being nominated as the Combatant Officer of Northern Command and the now North American Aerospace Defense Command.