Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of U.S. Southern Command, will retire at the end of the 2025 after more than 37 years of service. Pete Hegseth, secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2025 Wash100 Award winner, announced Holsey’s retirement Friday in a post on X.
Hegseth praised Holsey’s decades of naval leadership, saying it exemplifies the “highest standards” since his U.S. Navy commissioning.
Alvin Holsey’s Naval Career Record
A native of Fort Valley, Georgia, Holsey was commissioned through the Naval ROTC program at Morehouse College in 1988. Over his career, he commanded helicopter squadrons, led Carrier Strike Group One, and helped establish the International Maritime Security Construct, a multinational coalition to protect navigation in the Middle East.
Holsey, a four-star admiral, later served as SOUTHCOM military deputy commander before assuming the command’s leadership of U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“His tenure as military deputy commander and now commander of United States Southern Command reflects a legacy of operational excellence and strategic vision,” Hegseth said, thanking Holsey and his family for their service.
Holsey’s retirement is scheduled less than a year after his appointment in November 2024 as SOUTHCOM chief, during which time he’s overseen a military campaign initiated by President Trump against suspected Venezuelan drug runners, The Hill reported Thursday.
