Robert F. Milligan
Retired Marine Corps
Lt. Gen. Robert F. Milligan is Interim Executive Director of the Florida Dept.of
Veterans’ Affairs. He was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet
on 8/26/10 to succeed the late LeRoy Collins Jr. He directs a state agency responsible
in business administration from the University of Rochester. He studied economics
at the doctoral level at the University of Maryland.
General Milligan was elected to a four-year term as Comptroller of Florida in
1994 and re-elected to a second term in 1998. As Florida’s Comptroller,
Milligan was the state’s Chief Financial Officer, serving as the watchdog
over taxpayers’ money, head of the Department of Banking and Finance and
was a member of the Florida Cabinet. Most recently, he served as interim director
of the State Board of Administration and as chairman of the Florida Veterans
Foundation, Inc. General Milligan serves on the Executive Board of the Governor’s
Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service.
Editor’s
Note: The General has consented to send his Chief Executive Advisor to be the
keynote speaker at the opening of Guardians of Freedom on November 5th. for
assisting Florida’s more than 1.6 million veterans, their families and
survivors in improving their health and economic well-being through quality
benefit information, advocacy, education and long-term health services.
Milligan’s
Marine Corps career culminated as Commanding General of Fleet Marine Forces,
Pacific, and Marine Corps Bases, Pacific, with headquarters in Hawaii. He was
responsible for 2/3’s of the operating forces of the Marine Corps, consisting
of 92,000 Marines and sailors serving at 18 bases and stations and aboard ships
at sea, stretching from the continental United States to the far reaches of
the Pacific and Indian Oceans. He retired in 1991. He earned a Bachelor of Science
degree in engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s
