MARINE EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMS TO GOVERNMENT SECURITY SERVICE AND SECURITY CONSULTING
The Minden Rotary club was honored to have local resident Fred Piry share his security crisis experience at their meeting on Thursday, due to a cancelled trip to Ukraine. Mr. Piry’s experience spans five decades and includes military, government security service and security consulting.
The Marines were the first point of entry for Mr. Piry. He completed tours at the White House and United Nations before starting his twenty year career in foreign service as a Counter Terrorism Special Agent in the State’s Diplomatic Security Service. Serving as a Team Leader responding to high threats in over 120 countries, he was responsible for the development and implementation of two-week training programs for Seal Team 6 and U.S. Army Special Forces personnel.
In his most visible role, Mr. Piry served as the Agent in Charge of the protective detail for former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from 1998-2002. He shared stories with the Rotary Club of a visit with Albright to Korea in 2000 where they flew in everything they needed for the visit (including vehicles, gas, Marines and food) and having to brief Albright on the 9/11 terrorist attacks as she landed enroute to an international meeting.
He was also in charge of the protection of Haiti former Presidents Aristide and Preval, and Afghanistan former President Hamid Karzai. This was not always glamorous work as he shared pictures of the sleeping bags on the floor where the team slept while protecting Karzai for 3 ½ years! Security Service also included investigations of many terrorist incidents including the World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, the killing of U.S. Consulate employees in Pakistan and U.S. Embassy employees in Haiti, and bombings at the East African Embassy, Saudi Arabia and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. He accompanied the Dali Lama as he went across the U.S. doing conferences and protected the Prince of Saudi Arabia in Aspen.
Private industry security consulting was a natural progression after his government experience. In the first organization, he served as a senior leader in a firm that provided security and training programs, including the Global Anti-Terrorism Assistance Training and Overseas Building Operations Programs. Currently serving as the CEO and part owner of Active Crisis Consulting, LLC (based in Dallas, Texas) with 4 active Navy Seals, he enjoys providing security training ranging from security assessments of baseball stadiums, venues and living quarters for the athletes to active shooter training for education institutions and police departments. Mr. Piry has been recognized with the Medal of Valor, the highest civilian award, by former Secretary of State James Baker as well as many other honors and awards.
Even after five decades of military, government security service and security consulting, Mr. Piry has the energy of a pit bull. We are fortunate to have such a distinguished local resident in our midst!
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