Gov. Mark Sanford filled his final Cabinet position Tuesday with a true-life "fighter-jock cowboy."

Retired Marine Corps Maj. James McClain, 56, who owns a working cattle ranch in Orangeburg County, is Sanford's nominee to lead the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

"Jim McClain is the personification of leadership, personification of the word role model," Sanford said. "If any agency needs to have a role model at the top, it's this one."

The agency directs community supervision of offenders placed on probation or parole. It supervises more than 35,000 offenders.

"In either case," Sanford said, "you're dealing with people who have very profound needs and need to be able to look to a role model like this gentleman."

McClain called his nomination, which must be approved by the Senate, an honor.

"Our people will work to make PPP a model for emulation by all other agencies and states outside South Carolina," McClain said. "We commit to do everything possible to assist the parolee or probationer to successfully re-enter and become a productive member of society."

A native of Dillon County, McClain earned a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations at Arizona State University and then joined the Marines. In addition to being a fighter pilot, he was the Marine Corps' director of public affairs and its spokesman during the first Gulf War.

Since retiring from the Marines, McClain has worked in medical technology and research for Roche Diagnostics Corp. and, most recently, as senior vice president of global sales and marketing at Spectral Diagnostics.

McClain said he'll call on his experiences as a Marine in dealing with budget cuts facing all state agencies. After two years of cuts, state agencies face another 10 percent reduction in spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The Marine Corps, McClain said, is "probably the most cost-effective agency in the government of the United States. We are known to do everything that we are required to do with very, very little."

But he'll also draw on his family background. One of five brothers and sisters, he came from a family of sharecroppers in Dillon County.

"We know a lot about making do, a lot about making do," McClain said. "We worked very hard. My mom and dad taught me about thrift, industry, reverence and respect - all of those core values I will bring to this organization."

McClain is the third African-American to be named to Sanford's 11-member Cabinet. The others are Lee Catoe of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, and Adrienne Youmans of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

McClain's appointment is Sanford's final Cabinet pick. He and Health and Human Services nominee Robert Kerr are the only two yet to be confirmed by the full Senate.

Reach Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.