Colonel Rideout assumed command of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on September 3, 2015. In his most recent assignment, he served as Director for Operations and Marine Corps Element Commander, Joint Interagency Task Force South, in Key West, Florida.
From 2009 to 2012, Colonel Rideout served as the Commanding Officer of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 467; Wing Current Operations Officer; and the Director of Aviation Training Systems for the Second Marine Air Wing in Cherry Point, North Carolina.
Other assignments include: Assistant Current Operations Officer for Marine Aircraft Group 29; Squadron Operations Officer, Director of Safety and Standardization, and Logistics Officer for HMLA 269; Rotary Wing Company Grade monitor, Rotary Wing Majors’ monitor, and Assistant Aviation Lieutenant Colonels’ monitor with Aviation Officer Assignments Branch (MMOA-2), Manpower and Reserve Affairs; and Executive Officer of The Basic School.
Colonel Rideout served two tours in Iraq in support of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM and made two deployments with the Aviation Combat Element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit in the U.S. Navy’s Fifth and Sixth Fleets Area of Operations.
He initially enlisted in the Marine Corps as a reservist in 1989 and was assigned to Detachment 1, Communications Company, 4th Service Support Group in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He was commissioned through the Platoon Leader’s Course Program in 1993.
Colonel Rideout has served as a Marine Corps Officer, Naval Aviator, and AH-1W Cobra pilot for more than twenty years. He is a graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia.