Colonel Marcrum assumed duty as Research Professor of Indo-Pacific Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute in July 2025.
Colonel Kyle Marcrum was commissioned as an Armor Officer from the University of Arkansas ROTC in 1999. As an Armor Officer, he served in 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment at Fort Riley, Kansas as Assistant Logistics Officer and Platoon Leader; 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment at Camp Garryowen, Republic of Korea as Alpha Troop Executive Officer; 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Baumholder, Germany and Baghdad, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the Assistant Brigade Logistics Officer and Assistant Operations Officer; and 1st Battalion, 35th Armor as Battalion Logistics Officer and Commander of Alpha Company, 1-35 AR. In 2006, his company was attached to Task Force 1-6 and deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. While in Ramadi, he assumed command of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment and Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mayor of FOB Blue Diamond, Ramadi Iraq.
In 2008, COL Marcrum was reassigned as a Foreign Area Officer specializing in China and attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California where he obtained his Associates of Arts in the Chinese Language. In 2009, he and his family moved to Beijing, China, where he conducted extensive travel of the country and region, and continued his Chinese language study at Beijing’s Capital Normal University. In 2010, he attended the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies where he earned his Master’s of International Public Policy in China Studies.
As a Foreign Area Officer, COL Marcrum has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency as a Chinese Leadership Analyst and Senior Intelligence Analyst of China’s Ground Forces; as Assistant Army Attaché in the Defense Attaché Office at U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China; as an individual augmentee in the Defense Attaché Office at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal during the humanitarian effort after the 2015 earthquakes; as Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché at U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh; as the Senior Country Director for China at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, China Policy; and most recently as the Senior Defense Representative and Chief of Liaison Affairs at the American Institute in Taiwan. In 2022, COL Marcrum graduated from the U.S. Army War College with a Master’s in Strategic Studies.
COL Marcrum is married to the former Erin Jones. They have three children: Benjamin (17), Miles (13), and Cecilia (10).