Learn How People Have Gained from ROTC

As he assumes command of the Falcons, Colonel Chris Gibson is beginning his third tour with the 82nd Airborne Division, having served earlier as a Rifle Company Commander in the 504th PIR and Battalion Commander of the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment.  He most recently served as the G3 of the 25th Infantry Division and Multi-National Division-North Iraq. Earlier in his career Colonel Gibson was a Battalion and Brigade Executive Officer with the 10th Mountain Division and Rifle and Mortar Platoon Leader and Aide-de-Camp to the Commanding General of the Berlin Brigade. 

 

Colonel Gibson is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War, the NATO Peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.  For their actions in Mosul in support of the first national election in the new Iraq, his Battalion Task Force earned the Valorous Unit Award.  

 

Colonel Gibson has also served as an Assistant Professor of American Politics with the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, a Congressional Fellow, and Hoover National Security Fellow at Stanford University for which he received War College credit. He was the Distinguished Honor Graduate of his CGSC class and holds a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University.  He is the author of Securing the State, a book published by Ashgate in February 2008. 

 

Among his personal awards and decorations are: the Legion of Merit, four awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with Star, the Ranger Tab, and the Senior Parachutist Badge. 

 

Colonel Gibson and his wife Mary Jo have three children: Kathleen (10), Margaret (9), and Connor (6).

Mike Anderson is the European Command’s Strategic Outreach Coordinator. In that capacity he seeks to collaborate with  U.S. Interagency Departments, academia, allies, and the private sector to better execute the Command’s mission. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, he assumed his duties following two years as the Command’s Inspector General; an extension of the “eyes, ears, and conscience” of the European Command (EUCOM) Commander. Mike Anderson retired with the rank of Colonel from the Army in August 2008 after 30 years service.                         

During his Army career, he served for 24 years as an Army European Foreign Area Officer proficient in German and possessing an understanding of Danish.  He has more than twenty years experience in Europe, with five assignments in Germany, including the US Embassy in Bonn, service in Denmark as Attaché at the US Embassy Copenhagen, two tours in the Netherlands, including Deputy G5 of III US Corps (Forward) and most recent duty as the EUCOM Director, Europe Division, J5 Plans and Policy Directorate .  Mr. Anderson served on peacekeeping deployments to Croatia and Hungary in the mid 1990’s in support of the United Nations and NATO.

Among his previous assignments, Mike Anderson commanded in the 5th Infantry Division, been an Aide-de-Camp in Germany, a Battalion Executive Officer in the Netherlands, and a Deputy Brigade Commander in both Germany and Hungary.  Staff assignments included managing US Army relations with Israel, the Civil-Military Officer for US Army Europe’s Theater Support Command, and duty as the Deputy Executive Officer to the Commander of Training and Doctrine Command.

His military awards and decorations include two Defense Superior Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Parachutist Badge.

Colonel (Retired) Anderson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (cum laude) in Political Science from Siena College, New York, and a Master’s Degree in International Relations with an emphasis in European Security, from Columbia University in New York City.

His military education includes the Army General Staff College, the Foreign Area Officer Program, the Joint Military Attaché School, the NATO Staff Officer Course, the Defense Language Institute (German), the US State Department Foreign Service Institute (Danish), the Harvard University US-Russia Executive Security Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies Senior Executive Seminar and the Combatant Command/Joint Inspector General course.

Mike Anderson’s wife, Katja, is a teacher in German, French, and History.  They are most proud of their two young children; a daughter, Natasha (14), and a son, Maurice (7).

Colonel John V. Christian assumed duties as the Director of US Army Special Operations Command’s Compartmented Element on 12 September 2006.  In his previous assignment he was assigned to 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D) better known as “Delta Force” from 2002 to 2006 and previously from 1995 to 1999.  Colonel Christian was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry from Siena College in 1982.  Throughout his career he has served in operational assignments in Italy, the Philippines, and the United States.  He has multiple combat tours in Iraq, and in other locations.  He has commanded at every level from platoon through brigade sized task force.

His principal staff assignments have been as USASOC ACE Director, Chief of Staff for Reconciliation, Multi-National Forces-Iraq, Operations Officer for Task Force 20 (Iraq), and Chief, Army Programs, JUSMAG Philippines.

He commanded a Joint and Combined Task Force in Iraq, various commands in 1st SFOD-D, an airborne company in Vicenza Italy, a ranger training company, and a recruiting company.

He and his wife, Martha, have two sons, Michael and Matthew.