Dr. Clay Mountcastle was appointed Director of the Virginia War Memorial in June 2016.

A retired U.S. Army officer, his military service took him to Germany, South Korea and Iraq on assignments with the 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. Army 5th Corps and U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

He is a 1994 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and holds a Masters and PhD in History from Duke University. Most recently, he served as Professor of Military History at the University of Washington in Seattle and as an Assistant Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Lee, Virginia.

He is the author of Punitive War: Confederate Guerillas and Union Reprisals and numerous articles published in Civil War Monitor and other military history publications.