Colonel Henley was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and graduated from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1992. Throughout his time in university, Colonel Henley was a member of the reserve force, serving as an artillery of‌ficer with 3 Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. Shortly after graduation, he transferred to the Regular Force as a Construction Engineer.

Upon completion of his military engineer training in March 1995, he was posted to the Construction Engineering Section at 12 Wing Shearwater, Nova Scotia. He filled a variety of positions at the 12 Wing CE Section until its amalgamation with Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax. At that time he was posted to CFB Halifax Formation Construction Engineering. While in Halifax, Colonel Henley deployed to Bosnia with 1 Construction Engineering Unit from December 1998 to June 1999 where he was a project off‌icer with the Works and Design Company. Upon return to Canada, he was posted to 8 Wing Trenton as the Commander of 81 Airf‌ield Engineering Flight. After one year he also became Commander of 86 Airfield Systems and Utilities Flight. In 2002, Colonel Henley deployed to the Persian Gulf on Operation APOLLO where he was the Commander of the Airfield Engineering Flight and the Engineering Services Officer for the National Support Unit.

Upon return to Canada, Colonel Henley was posted to 4 Wing Cold lake as the Commanding Off‌icer 4 Airf‌ield Engineering Squadron. While at Cold lake he deployed as the Detachment Commander for the 4 Wing commitment to Operation PEREGINE: support to forest f‌ire f‌ighting in British Columbia. After Cold lake he completed a three-year exchange posting with the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency at Tyndall Air Force Base. Florida. He returned to 4 Wing in 2008 as the Wing Construction Engineering Officer. In 2010 Colonel Henley was posted to Ottawa and filled a variety of positions within Assistant Deputy Minister Infrastructure and Environment and at Canadian Forces Joint Operations Command Headquarters as the section read for joint Engineer Operations. In 2017 he was posted to Toronto as the Commanding Off‌icer of Real Property Operations Unit - Ontario. His last posting was to Royal Canadian Air Force staff as the Director of Air Personnel Management.

Colonel Henley is a graduate of the United States Air Force Command and Staf‌f College and has a Masters Degree in Military Studies from the American Military University. He is married to Leslie Huynh of Ottawa, Ontario and he has two sons; William and Cameron and a daughter Keira.