Leaders
Deputy Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Brig. Gen. Ryan S. “Chick” Rideout

Brigadier General Rideout assumed duties as Deputy Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force in July 2021. His previous assignment was serving as Director, Military Advisor Group, Combined Joint Task Force - Operation INHERENT RESOLVE based in Baghdad, Iraq from June of 2020 to June 2021. 

Fleet Marine Force assignments include: Commanding Officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) based in Camp Lejuene, North Carolina; Commanding Officer of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 467 and Current Operations Officer for the Second Marine Air Wing (2d MAW) in Cherry Point, North Carolina; Assistant Operations Officer for Marine Aircraft Group 29 and numerous squadron assignments with HMLA-269 in New River, North Carolina.

Staff Assignments include: Chief of Staff, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic/U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command and Fleet Marine Officer, U.S. Fleet Forces Command based in Norfolk, Virginia; Director of Operations and Marine Corps Element Commander for Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Florida; Director, Aviation Training Systems for 2d MAW; Executive Officer of The Basic School, Rotary Wing Monitor and Assistant Aviation Lieutenant Colonels Monitor with Aviation Officer Assignment Branch, Manpower and Reserve Affairs in Quantico, Virginia. 

As and AH-1W Cobra pilot, Rideout deployed twice with the 22nd MEU(SOC) to the U.S. Navy's SIXTH Fleet and served two tours with HMLA-269 in Al Anbar, Iraq in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Under his command, the 24th MEU conducted foreign disaster relief operations in Haiti following Hurricane Matthew in 2016, deployed to the Navy's FIFTH and SIXTH Fleets to support Operations INHERENT RESOLVE, ECLIPSE, ODYSSEY RESOLVE, and YUKON SCEPTER, and provided defense support to civil authorities in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. 

Rideout enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in may of 1989 and was later commissioned through the PLC program in 1993. He is a graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia, and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in Boston, Massachusetts. He and his wife, Jackie, have been married 30 years, have two happily married children and one grandson.