Northwest Readers SHARE A STORY by capricious winds beyond my control. Yet it’ s been a soft landing here in Spokane, and in the four years since my arrival I’ ve really connected to this community and am very grateful to find myself in a position where my youthful passions are now proving conducive to my work advocating on behalf of this region’ s development at the forefront of aerospace technology.
I attended the University of Pennsylvania on an Army ROTC scholarship and was assigned to 1-66th Armor Battalion at Fort Hood upon graduation, serving in various roles in an M1A1 Abrams tank unit. I was honored to get an officer’ s commission in a combat arms branch where I was forced to pick up some very important leadership lessons. Ironically, in the mid-1990s, my first deployment was to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where my tank company ran a refugee camp for Cuban balseros, those seeking to flee the Castro regime. That mission left an impression on me. I started to realize that the distance between my small, rural Pennsylvania hometown and the frontlines of American foreign policy was not as far as I may have thought. The knowledge and experiences— and the very values I gained from my teachers, coaches, Boy Scout leaders, and those who fostered my upbringing in smalltown, USA— that’ s what was shaping my conduct as I led my soldiers on this deployment. My hometown made me, and here I was making foreign policy, albeit in a small way. Little did I know then, but it wouldn’ t be the last time; and the next time wouldn’ t be so small.
In February 2005 I received a Western Union telegram that said, in all capital letters, that I had been called out of inactive reserve to serve in Iraq. I believe my surprise at getting called up was matched by my surprise that the government still used telegrams. Instead of going with a tank unit, I was assigned to a Civil Affairs unit responsible for rebuilding government services in Baghdad. Essentially, I found myself in a position where I was a diplomat for the Army, working with the Mayor of Baghdad and other local officials to navigate political divides, push through bureaucratic inertia, and overcome technological challenges to provide basic services to a city of seven million— all of this in the midst of terrorism, sectarian warfare, extreme criminality, corruption, and humanitarian crisis.
When my Army tour was up, I was asked by the State Department to return for a second tour, which I did as a political officer for the Embassy— coinciding with the“ Surge” of 2007-2008. During that 18-month tour, I facilitated the political component of our efforts to stabilize Iraq, particularly through the execution of the“ Baghdad Security Plan”— a comprehensive strategy to foster coordination between rival Iraqi factions in order to legitimize the new governance regime and improve the delivery of basic services. The greatest indicator of success we witnessed in this effort was the return of mid-level bureaucrats and officials to their jobs. During the height of chaos and violence, these individuals fled— not wanting to get caught up in political feuds. As Baghdad stabilized, bureaucrats got back to work. That, in my opinion, is the success of the“ Surge.”
I took this insight with me to the University of Pittsburgh and completed my PhD dissertation:“ Metropolitan Battlefields: Urban topography and the weaponization of governance in Baghdad.” Aiming to condense what I had experienced in Baghdad into some kind of useful“ lessons
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