Colonel Tim Matthews enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1990, serving 12 years as an enlisted Marine reservist before being commissioned from Officer Candidate School in 2002. Colonel Matthews is an Air Support Control Officer, MOS 7202, and has held various Marine Air Command and Control billets at both the company and field grade levels. His significant assignments include being a Platoon Commander, DASC Company Commander, Operations Officer, and Executive Officer. Lieutenant Colonel Matthews was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as the Air Support Liaison Team OIC, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7, and to the Horn of Africa from 2006 to 2007 as a platoon commander with the 6th Provisional Security Company. He served as the Commanding Officer of Marine Air Support Squadron 6 from 2017 to 2020 and graduated from the Naval War College in June 2021.
In addition to his primary MOS, Colonel Matthews has served in various planning and support positions. As a captain, he was assigned to the Reserve Support Program and was responsible for executing IRR Musters in the Northeast. As a major, he served as a joint planner for the Joint Planning Support Element at the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command. His planning efforts encompassed strategic and operational planning for Northeast Asia, embassy reinforcement/evacuation in Libya, and the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Bragg. Post command and Top-Level School, he spent a year on active duty orders at PP&O in the Strategy and Plans Division’s Sensitive Activities Branch as a planner and Information Operations Officer. Before assuming his current MACG-48 Senior Reserve Advisor role, Colonel Matthews returned to reserve status and was associated with MARFORPAC G-3/5 as a Theater Security Cooperation planner, focusing on the planning and executing BALIKATAN 23 in the Philippines.
Colonel Matthews’ formal military education includes Officer Candidate School, The Basic School, Air Support Control Officer’s Course, Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course, Expeditionary Warfare School (seminar), Marine Corps Command and Staff (seminar), Naval Command and Staff (resident), College of Naval Warfare (resident) and the Joint and Combined Warfighting School. Colonel Matthews has also completed DSCA I and II, the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course, and the United Kingdom Planners Course.
Colonel Matthews’ awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, two Joint Service Commendation Medals, and three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, as well as various service and unit awards.
Colonel Matthews is a graduate of Boston College with a B.A. in History and an M.Ed in Secondary Education.