Marvin G. Haynes IV
Director
Biography
Marvin graduated West Point in 1994 with a degree in History. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Field Artillery, he served in various Battery-level positions at Camp Stanley in the Republic of Korea and Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Returning to Camp Stanley in 2000, he took command of Battery A, 6th Battalion, 37th Field Artillery (MLRS) and then, the following year, Battery C, 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery (MLRS). After command, he served for a year in the 8th Army G5, Civil-Military Operations, at Yongsan Army Garrison, ROK, as a member of the Information Operations Working Group and Joint Task Force Non-Combatant Evacuation Order (JTF-NEO).
Selected as a Northeast Asian Foreign Area Officer in 2001, he completed FAO training and received his Master’s in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii in 2006. From 2007-2009, he served as the U.S. Army Japan Liaison Officer to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Eastern Army Headquarters, at Camp Asaka. Returning to Korea in 2009, he helped stand up 8th Army’s Digital Liaison Detachment—Ground at Yongsan Army Garrison, negotiating with the ROK Army and then drafting the Integrated Operational Standard Operating Procedures before deploying to Afghanistan.
Assigned to the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, he served for six months as the command’s liaison officer to International Security Assistance Force headquarters. This was followed by a further six months as the Chief of Operations for the NTM-A Operations Directorate, running a Joint Operations Center made up of 32 personnel from seven allied nations.
Returning from Afghanistan, he arrived back in Korea in time to re-flag the DLD-G as the 2501st Support Detachment, stationed at Yongin. He wrote the new unit’s SOPs and spent the last few months of that tour as Executive Officer to the Commanding General of 8th Army.
Heading back to Camp Asaka in 2012 he served as the Army Training and Doctrine Command liaison officer to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. From 2014 he spent three years as the Chief of Government Relations at U.S. Forces, Japan where he contributed to such noteworthy efforts as the Environmental Supplement to the Status of Forces Agreement, re-writing of the US-Japan Defense Guidelines, Special Measures Agreement Negotiations (SMA), and the development and implementation of the Alliance Coordination Mechanism.
Selected for attaché work, in 2017, he reported to the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo as the Assistant Army Attaché where he successfully represented the Secretary of Defense to the Government of Japan. In 2019 he returned to U.S. Forces, Japan as the Director of J5, Plans & Policy. In that role he participated in two further SMA negotiations, oversaw the resumption of practice bombing at Camp Fuji, negotiated the deployment of MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicles to Kanoya Airbase, and walked a careful line protecting U.S. interests in Japan throughout the COVID epidemic.
Returning to Korea in 2022 he spent six months as Chief of the J5 Strategy & Policy Division before taking his final position in the Army, retiring as the Deputy Director of J5 Plans, Policy & Strategy in January 2025. He is an honored recipient of Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, and the Republic of Korea’s Order of National Security Merit, Samil Medal.
A prolific writer in his off time, he has published four historical fiction novels and drafted 15 articles related to Asian history carried in four commercial magazines to date. As well, he enjoys traditional Korean archery and travel to historic locations throughout the region.
