Chief of Staff
Thomas G. Bowman was appointed Chief of Staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by VA Secretary R. James Nicholson on Oct. 12, 2005. He previously served as VA Deputy Chief of Staff since August 2004. As Chief of Staff, he works closely with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary in managing day-to-day operations of the federal government’s second-largest Cabinet department, with some 234,000 employees in VA medical centers, clinics, benefits offices and national cemeteries throughout the country. Mr. Bowman first joined VA in February 2002 after serving as senior counsel to the Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives. At VA, he served as Executive Assistant and Acting Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs before leaving in June 2003 to serve as State Court Administrator for the Rhode Island Judiciary and Chief of Staff to the Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Mr. Bowman returned to VA in June 2004 to become the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs and served in that position until appointed the Deputy Chief of Staff in August 2004. Mr. Bowman was commissioned into the Marine Corps through the ROTC Program at the University of Texas in 1969. From 1970 through 1975, he served as a platoon commander, company commander, battalion, regimental, and division staff officer with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Marine Divisions in Southeast Asia, Okinawa, and at various Marine Corps bases in the United States. In 1975, Mr. Bowman attended Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, Mass. He was awarded his law degree in 1979. He returned to active duty in 1980 and was assigned to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., where he served as a prosecutor, defense counsel and law center director until 1983. From 1983 to 1988, Mr. Bowman served as the Marine Corps Representative and Instructor of Law at the Naval Justice School, Newport, R.I. He left active duty in 1988 and served as an assistant district attorney in southeastern Massachusetts. As a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, he was called to active duty during the Gulf War and served until May 1991 at Camp Pendleton, Calif., serving initially as a legal assistance officer and later as 1st Marine Division (Rear) staff judge advocate. Upon release from active duty, he entered a private law practice. Mr. Bowman returned to active duty in 1994 and served as a staff officer with Headquarters, Marine Forces Reserve, in New Orleans, La. He was reassigned to the Pentagon in May of 1995 where he served as a project director and later as the senior military assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. In May 1998, he assumed duties as the senior military assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. He retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in October 1999. April 2007
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