Ricky Buria
Colonel Ricky Buria is an American public official. Since 2025 he has served as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Early life and education
[edit]Buria is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Marshall University.[1]
Military service and political career
[edit]After enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps, Buria deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.[2] As of 2022, Buria was the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 362 Commanding Officer in Mirimar, California.[3]
From 2023 to 2024, Buria served as a Fellow in the Secretary of Defense Strategic Thinkers Program at Johns Hopkins University.[4]
Buria joined the Department of Defense staff as a junior military aide to Secretary Lloyd Austin in April 2024.[5] Buria remained at the Department of Defense after the Biden administration ended in January 2025 and continued to serve in a military aide role under Secretary Pete Hegseth. Buria assumed the duties of acting senior military assistant in February 2025, a role usually reserved for high-ranking military officials.[6] In addition to fulfilling the traditional "body man" duties that the military aide assumes, Buria began advising Hegseth on policy and administrative matters; Buria reportedly helped Hegseth gain access to freer means of communication on his personal devices, including Signal, the messaging app on which Hegseth shared classified information in a group text.[7][2]
In April 2025, Buria resigned from his post in the U.S. Marine Corps to assume a role as a political appointee at the Department of Defense, receiving a waiver from the White House to begin work in a political role more quickly than would generally be allowable under federal law.[8][5] Public reporting indicated that the White House did not approve of Buria taking the chief of staff role at the Pentagon, namely because of his ties to the Biden administration.[9][10][11] Buria is also linked to the pattern of Hegseth denying promotions to female officers and people of color at the department.[12][13] Buria was ultimately named chief of staff in December 2025.[14][15]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Graduation List for December 2013 – Outside of West Virginia". Marshall University News. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- 1 2 Lowell, Hugo (2025-07-23). "Trump advisers abandon effort to find new chief of staff to serve Pete Hegseth". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ "Maj. Gen. Gering visits Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 362". DVIDS. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ "Marine Corps University Factbook 2024" (PDF).
- 1 2 Robertson, Noah (2025-04-22). "How a Lloyd Austin aide became Pete Hegseth's 'only guy standing'". Defense News. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ "Hegseth's Yes-Man Signal Guru Is His New Favorite Aide". Yahoo News. 2025-04-25. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Jake Tapper (2025-04-24). "'He gets him what he needs': Hegseth's new favorite adviser helped set up Signal on one of secretary's computers at Pentagon | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ "DOD Senior Advisor Announcements". U.S. Department of War. Archived from the original on 2026-05-13. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ "POLITICO Pro: White House renews search for new chief of staff for Hegseth". subscriber.politicopro.com. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ Lamothe, Dan (2025-07-22). "Trump intervenes to boost Hegseth aide who left military for politics". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ Reporter, William Vaillancourt (2025-05-10). "White House Blocking Hegseth's 'Rasputin' From Chief Role". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ Migdon, Brooke (March 27, 2026). "Hegseth's Chief of Staff Claimed Trump Wouldn't Want to Be Seen with a Black Female Army Officer, Report Alleges".
- ↑ Jaffe, Greg; Schmitt, Eric; Cooper, Helene; Entous, Adam (2026-03-27). "Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ "Embattled top Hegseth aide wins promotion". POLITICO. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- ↑ "Exclusive | Pete Hegseth's top aide is spreading rumors for 1 reason". 2026-04-03. Retrieved 2026-08-23.