James E. McPherson
Acting Secretary of the Navy
James Edwin McPherson was born in January 1953 in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from San Diego State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law. He was awarded a Master of Laws degree in military law from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia.
He enlisted in the Army and served three years as a military policeman before going to college. He was later commissioned as a Navy ensign in the JAGC of the Naval Reserve. He served as a judge advocate both before and after his graduate school training. After filling many posts in that Corps, he became Judge Advocate General of the Navy, a position he held for two years.
McPherson has served as the executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General, and was the general counsel of the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity.
He served as General Counsel of the United States Department of the Army, after appointment by President Donald Trump and confirmation by the U.S. Senate in a voice vote. He became Under Secretary of the Army in December 2019, serving concurrently as General Counsel of the Army. Defense Secretary Mark Esper designated McPherson Acting Secretary of the Navy on April 7, 2020.
He is married to Jennifer and they have two adult children.
In the News…
Three short videos that show what appear to be unidentified flying objects rapidly moving while recorded by infrared Navy cameras have now been officially released by the Pentagon. Two of the videos contain service members reacting in awe at how quickly the objects are moving. One voice speculates that it could be a drone.
The Navy had previously acknowledged the veracity of the videos last year and are releasing them now “in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” a spokesperson for the Pentagon said.
“After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems,” the Navy said in a statement, “and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena.”
The Navy now has formal guidelines for how its pilots can report when they believe they have seen possible UFOs.
