Where did you serve and what did you do?

I served 28 years on active duty with my first deployment being Operation Assured Response in Liberia in the mid-1990s, then Bosnia for Implementation Force and later Stabilization Force, and finally Operation Southern Watch as part of the mission to contain Saddam Hussein. At the time I was a Navy Plans, Operations and Medical Intelligence Officer that worried about the medical readiness of our Sailors and Marines onboard the USS Guam (LPH-9) Amphibious Ready Group and took part in medically evacuating non-combatants from Liberia. Then 9/11 occurred and I was impacted personally and professionally, as I was outside of the Pentagon that day waiting for the 0940 shuttle to take me to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), when American 77 struck at 0937. There was a dire need for Arabic linguists and cultural experts, that my career pivoted to serving in countering terrorism for 21 out of my 28 years on active duty, starting as the Director for North Africa and Egypt under the late Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 and retiring in 2022 from DIA as the Subject Matter Expert on Al-Qaida Associated Movements and ISIS.

How are you Still Serving?

I am the author and co-author of seven books on the Middle East and countering terrorism, and continue to give talks on the Global War on Terrorism to military units, federal agencies, and the intelligence community. After leaving active duty, I taught briefly at the Joint Military Intelligence Training Center and then served at CIA until last year as a Senior Intelligence Analyst. Having earned my doctorate on the post-9/11 GI Bill in 2025, I am today an Adjunct Professor of Political Science and Doctoral Program Leader in Residence at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.

Why do you do it?

Teaching and inspiring the next generation of military leaders, public servants, and intelligence analysts is what I am passionate about, to paraphrase the Navy, "They have the watch."