Admiral Eric Thor Olson, USN, (born 1951 or 1952 in Tacoma, Washington) is the 8th and current Commander, United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). ADM Olson is the first Navy SEAL ever to be appointed to the grade of a three-star and four-star admiral as well as the first naval officer to be USSOCOM’s combatant commander. ADM Olson is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. ADM Olson participated in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.
Olson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1973 and completed SEAL training in 1974. For the next two decades, he served in a variety of military assignments, many of them overseas, until 1994 when he became commander of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, an American counter-terrorism unit. Olson was promoted again in 1999 when he assumed command of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California. He assumed his current assignment on 9 July 2007.