Givens is a former Brigadier General who served in the U.S. Air Force for 27 years. He has extensive expertise in senior executive level of the national security process, previously serving as the special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and deputy assistant chief of staff for Operations of U.S. Forces Korea. He has held command at the squadron, group, and wing levels and holds Masters degrees from the School of Advanced Air Power Studies and the National War College.

Givens has attended executive level education programs at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, Kenan-Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He is recognized as an expert on all levels of air operations and his work, “Turning the Vertical Flank,” was published by the Air University Press Cadre Papers. He received the Air Force Association Award for his paper, “Coercion through Capability,” while at the National War College.

Givens is a command pilot with more than 3,700 flying hours in the F-16 and A/O A-10 and flew as Right Wing for the USAF Thunderbirds. Givens is a combat veteran with more than 100 career combat sorties in Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom and was twice decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in action against Iraq. In his final deployment, Givens served as director, Combined Air and Space Operation Center, U.S. Air Forces Central Command, where he was responsible for the ongoing combat air operations in the Middle East. He also served as the national security advisor for a presidential and senatorial campaign.