Charles L. Young III

Mr. Charles Young currently serves as the Acting General Counsel of the Department of Defense. Appointed by the President as the Principal Deputy General Counsel, he was sworn in on January 20, 2025. As the Acting General Counsel, Mr. Young serves as the chief legal officer of the Department and the principal legal advisor to the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Young is responsible for legal determinations and legal policy across the Department of Defense and its components. He also serves as the Acting Director of the Defense Legal Services Agency, which is comprised of the legal staffs assigned to the Defense Agencies and Department of Defense Field Activities. Chief Counsel of the National Guard Bureau.

Mr. Young previously served as the General Counsel of National Guard Bureau; Where he was the principal legal visor to the Chief, National Guard Bureau; Vice Chief, National Guard Bureau; and the Directors of the Army and Air National Guard in issues pertaining to the utilization and administration of over 436, 000 National Guard members. He also served as their representative to officials throughout the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal government including the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, Department of the Air Force, and the Judge Advocates General.

Previously, Mr. Young served as Chief of the National Guard Bureau’s Litigation and Employment Law Division. In that position, he defended the National Guard’s interests in all aspects of Department of Defense/National Guard operations and policies worldwide. He served as the National Guard’s legal subject matter expert on issues across the spectrum of National Guard matters, such as: the Constitutional, statutory, and regulatory authorities involved in the funding, organization, discipline, and utilization of the National Guard; the National Guard as a reserve component; the organization, functions, and relational authorities of the National Guard Bureau; the National Guard Technician Program; and the Active-Guard Reserve Program.

Mr. Young was originally commissioned in the United States Army in 1989 in the Aviation branch and served as an AH-64, Apache attack helicopter pilot and platoon leader. He was selected to attend law school at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary under the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program. He continued to serve as an active-duty Army Judge Advocate until April 2005 when he transferred to the West Virginia Air National Guard and accepted an active-duty position in the Office of the Chief Counsel, NGB. Since starting at NGB, Mr. Young has served as an administrative law attorney; litigation attorney; deployed in response to numerous hurricanes to include hurricane Katrina relief duties; deployed to Iraq to work Rule of Law issues for Multi-National Forces-Iraq; and assisted in the deployments for numerous border security missions. He retired from service in 2009 and has since served as an Air Force civilian attorney. He is married with two daughters and son who is a Captain in the Army’s Aviation Branch as an AH-64(E) pilot.