Brig. Gen, Carlos E. “Charlie” Martinez was born in Havana, Cuba and grew up in Miami, Florida. He graduated from the University of Miami in 1971 with a B.S. in Systems Analysis. Upon graduation, he entered the Air Force to become a pilot. Following officer and flight training in Texas, he was assigned to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, where he flew VIP missions.

In 1976, he was selected to attend graduate school and earned an M.S. in Operations Research from The George Washington University in 1978. He subsequently served tours as a management engineer and as a missile test engineer. Upon separating from active duty in 1981, Brig. Gen. Martinez began a second career in the Washington, D.C. area where he has worked in private industry on a variety of analytical, and information systems projects in support of the U.S. Government. During this time, he continued a parallel career in the Air Force Reserve where he served as an operations research analyst and as an acquisition officer in a variety of assignments in the Boston, MA, Dayton, OH, and Washington,

D.C. areas. As a Reservist, he rose to the rank of Brigadier General and immediately following the 9/11 attacks, he served a nine-month tour of active duty in the Pentagon helping support the Global War on Terror and subsequently served as the Mobilization Assistant to the Air Force’s Chief of Warfighting Integration until his retirement from the Air Force in 2006.

Also, since June 2022, he has been a Board Member of the Reserve Forces Policy Board, which serves as an independent advisor to Secretary of Defense on Reserve and National Guard matters.

Brig. Gen. Martinez joined the MITRE Corporation in 2002 where he has led numerous analytical efforts for a variety of government agencies. Among these have been projects for the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Treasury, and Homeland Security. He also spent several years providing analytical support to the Third Branch of government, the U.S. Courts. Most recently, he supported the Federal Aviation Administration to meet a variety of challenges, most recently related to the integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the national airspace. In his private life, Brig. Gen. Martinez is a licensed instructor pilot and a member of the Board of Directors for the Hispanic Veterans Leadership Alliance.

(As of June 2022)