Military career
After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1991, he then immediately applied for SEAL selection and graduated from Basic Under Water Demolitions/SEAL training (BUD/S) with class 179 in 1992. His operational assignments from 1992 to 1999 include assistant platoon commander and platoon commander tours at SEAL Team Four and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team Two. He also served as an international exchange officer with the Italian COMSUBIN or Italian SEALs. [11] In 1999, Bradley volunteered for assignment to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (commonly known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six) and completed a specialized selection and training course known as Green Team. There he operated, rehearsed, and planned clandestine operations. At DEVGRU, he also held numerous leadership positions from 1999 until 2015, which included element leader, troop commander, squadron operations officer, operations officer, squadron commander, deputy commanding officer, and finally, commanding officer from 2013 to 2015. He was also among the first American and coalition troops to deploy to Afghanistan following the attacks on 11 September 2001, and he has deployed consistently since in support of the war on terror. [12] His staff duty from 2016 to 2018 has included service as JSOC’s J-3 Technical Operations division chief and deputy J-3; vice deputy director for Global Operations for the Joint Staff J-3; executive officer for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. and the deputy director for CT Strategy for the Joint Staff J-5. He also served as assistant commander of JSOC from 2018 to 2020 before taking the post as commander of Special Operations Command Central from 2020 to 2022. [13]
In May 2022, Bradley was nominated for promotion to vice admiral [14] and assigned as Commander, Joint Special Operations Command. [15] In August 2022, Bradley was promoted and took command of Joint Special Operations Command. [16] In June 2025, Bradley was nominated for promotion to admiral and assignment as commander of the United States Special Operations Command. [17] [18]
September 2025 boat-strike incident
Bradley, then commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, oversaw a strike in the Caribbean on September 2, 2025, ordered by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth against a vessel suspected of narcotics trafficking. [19] The The Washington Post reported that Bradley ordered a second strike after two survivors were identified on a drone feed, following Hegseth's directive to leave no survivors. The incident prompted questions from current and former officials and law-of-war experts about whether the operation was a war crime or even complied with U.S. Rules of engagement and International law. [8]
According to an account in The Hill , Bradley “viewed the survivors as legitimate targets as they could possibly call other traffickers to come get them and their cargo.” [20] Bradley later contradicted this account by testifying to congressional committees that it seemed that the survivors did not have communication devices. [21]
According to a statement issued by the Former JAGs Working Group (formed in February in response to Secretary of Defense Hegseth's firing of Army and Air Force JAGs), if the alleged order to “kill everybody,” including incapacitated survivors, was part of a “non-international armed conflict” (as the Trump administration claims), then it and its execution would be a war crime; if, on the other hand, the operation was not part of an armed conflict of any kind, then the order and its execution would be murder. [22] [23]
On December 1, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted that Bradley ordered the second strike. Secretary of Defense Hegseth stated in a post on X: "Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since". [24]
In closed-door briefings on December 4, Bradley told members of the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees that Hegseth did not give the order to "kill them all". [25] From sources familiar with Bradley's congressional testimony, CNN reported that video footage showed the the first missile strike killing nine of eleven occupants of the boat, while breaking the boat apart and capsizing it, leaving two initial survivors holding on to a floating piece of the capsized boat. [21] Per CNN's sources, Bradley testified that he ordered another missile strike on the floating piece, which had the effect of killing the remaining two occupants, because Bradley believed that the floating piece of the capsized boat still had cocaine, and that if the two initial survivors were to be saved with the floating piece, they could still distribute the cocaine. [21]
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