BG Michael J. Dougherty was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 20 May 1995 after completing ROTC. He attended the Signal Officer’s Basic Course at Ft Gordon, Georgia from June 1995 to November 1995. His first assignment was to the 141st Signal Battalion, 1st Armored Division in December 1995 as a Platoon Leader, and on 3 January 1996, he led his Signal Platoon across the Sava River into Bosnia as part of Operation Joint Endeavor. A year later, he deployed a second time with the 1st Armored Division in September 1997, as part of Operation Joint Guard. While on active duty with the 141st Signal Battalion, 1st Armored Division, he held positions as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, and Battalion Maintenance Officer.
BG Dougherty left active duty on 1 October 1998 and joined the Army Reserve 1 August 1999 as an Observer/Trainer for 1/91st Battle Command Systems Training (BCST) until September 2006. He was then assigned as the Battalion Operations Officer for 2-104th Signal Battalion until December 2010, when he was cross-leveled to the 77th Sustainment Brigade, serving as the Sustainment Automation Support Management Officer and Deputy Support Operations Officer and deployed to Iraq from January 2011 to December 2011. BG Dougherty was then reassigned to the 2-104th Signal Battalion in January 2012 as the Battalion Operations Officer until January 2013. He commanded the 2-104th Signal Battalion from January 2013 to January 2015, 2nd Brigade, 100th Division from January 2015 to September 2015, and the 319th Expeditionary Signal Battalion from September 2015 to September 2017. He then became the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-6, for the 79th Theater Sustainment Command in Los Alamitos, CA from September 2017 to June 2018, and became the Northern California Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer from June 2018 to August 2020. He took command of the 505th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade from August 2020 to September 2021. In September 2021 upon promotion to Brigadier General, BG Dougherty was selected to be the Deputy Commanding General of the 335th Signal Command (T).
His military education includes the US Army War College, Command and General Staff College, Combined Arms Exercise, Signal Officer's Advance Course, and the Signal Officer's Basic Course. His civilian education includes a master’s in business administration from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
BG Dougherty's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Achievement Medal with two Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal (7th award), National Defense Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Forces Reserve Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, and NATO Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster.
BG Dougherty works at Google where he manages hardware development for Google's computer and storage data center products. He currently resides in Morgan Hill, CA and has been married to his wife Mimi, a small business owner and veteran, for 28 years. They have four children, Charles (22) who currently resides in Honolulu, Thomas (20), who is studying Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Benjamin (15), and Isabelle (12).