"Military and the Society We Protect: Perspective and Relationships"

September 11, 2001, like December 7, 1941 and March 11, 2020, are days that will live in infamy.  We remember 11 March as the official beginning of the COVID pandemic and 11 September as the remembrance of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These trying times force us to rely on relationships forged in better times.  While we remain socially distanced for now, we cannot afford to be relationally distanced.

Colonel Bradley Smith is the Chief, NORAD and USNORTHCOM Command Center (N2C2) at Peterson Air Force Base and has a unique perspective on the events of September 11, 2001 and March 11 this year. 

Colonel Smith is a 1994 graduate of DePauw University. He began his career as an intelligence officer with assignments at Osan AB, South Korea and Kadena AB, Japan. He deployed to Incirlik AB, Turkey as an intel officer and an F-15C pilot to support Operation NORTHERN WATCH in the months leading up to Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Colonel Smith began a series of staff assignments after a medical grounding in 2003. He was selected as an executive officer three times and became a joint specialty officer with a tour in the USJFCOM J-3 and J-8. While stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Colonel Smith served in additional duties as a JTF J5, an AFFOR Chief of Staff, and Crisis Action Team Director, and he deployed to SOUTHCOM in support of Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Colonel Smith commanded the 5th Air Support Operations Squadron as an Air Liaison Officer and 717th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron, providing the Air Support Operations Center (ASOC) for the Afghanistan Area of Operations.