He spent his early years with his parents in Upper Sind then attended the Murree Christian School, located at a former British Indian Himalayan hill station near the tiny crossroads town of Jhika Gali in the Murree hills of Rawalpindi District, Punjab province.

He also was seconded to the Department of State to serve as Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) to southern Afghanistan based in Kandahar (2012–2013).

[3] Addleton was Counselor for International Development at the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium (2007–2009), when President Barack Obama nominated him to be ambassador to Mongolia.

[4]On April 6, 2013 Addleton was part of a group targeted by a suicide bomber as they walked to a local school to deliver textbooks in the Afghan city of Qalat.

"[6] Following his retirement from the Foreign Service in January 2017, Addleton has worked as an Adjunct in the Department of International and Global Studies at Mercer University in his hometown of Macon, GA.

In May 2017, Addleton was one of six alumni inducted into Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism "Hall of Achievement," a group that included Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize winning editor Bruce Dold and Edith Chapin, Executive Editor of NPR News.