Emphasizing that public, civil and military service is crucial to the economic, social and political future of the United States, Maurice Gralnek, the Arizona chapter president of the Association for Former Intelligence Officers, spoke April 10 to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus.
The occasion was the dedication of Glen A. Doherty Center in memory of an ERAU graduate who was killed at Benghazi.
More than 175 people – many from out of state – attended.
Gralnek was a substitute for Mary Rose McCaffery, director of security for the CIA, who was unable to attend because of last-minute obligations in Washington, D.C.
Gralnek, with 28 years of worldwide experience as an intelligence officer, praised ERAU for initiating the “…premier program in the nation.”
ERAU Chancellor Frank Ayers said program graduates will be among the most sought after at the university.
He said that because of ongoing security threats throughout the world, corporations, governmental agencies and many businesses consider violation of security as a major threat, and they hire accordingly.
A statement from the CIA says, “We recruit at ERAU because the students have the skill set and relevant experience needed to be competitive: familiarity with technical systems and programming languages, cultural awareness, critical thinking skills and interest and knowledge of international affairs.”
The Glen A. Doherty Center will house the recently founded College of Security and Intelligence Studies. Formally launched Jan. 28, it is the first full-blown university program of its type in the United States.
At the dedication ceremony, Chancellor Ayers, College Dean Phil Jones, and Greg Doherty, brother of the man after whom the building was named, unveiled a large plaque by the entrance.
“It is a privilege to dedicate this building to a man who gave his all to protect the freedoms we enjoy as Americans,” Ayers said.
Witnessing the unveiling were two Navy SEALs who earlier had served with Doherty. They said they “…came to the ceremony to honor their special brother.”
Glen Doherty was an ERAU graduate who trained as a pilot at the Prescott campus before he joined the U.S. Navy. He later earned his bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from ERAU Worldwide.
In 1995, Doherty joined the Navy SEALs (United States Navy’s Sea, Air, Land Teams). He was trained as a paramedic and a sniper, and was assigned to the Middle East.
Doherty, 42, was one of four Americans killed in the radical extremists’ terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya – 11 years and one day after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack. It recently was revealed that he was a CIA operative while in Libya.
“Doherty was a true American hero. We know he directly rescued 30 Americans by helping evacuate them before he was killed in an early morning mortar attack Sept. 12,” said Jones.
Doherty’s earlier service included his being on a team responding to a suicide attack by al Qaeda on the USS Cole as it was being refueled Oct. 12, 2000, in Aden, Yemen.
Following the Sept. 11 attack, the Massachusetts-born Doherty served two tours in the 2003 Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Doherty was the co-author, with Brandon Webb, of Navy SEAL Sniper, which describes the mental toughness, skills and training required to become a member of the military elite.
The book was published posthumously.
Following the ceremony, the public was invited to tour the building, which houses state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories where students learn to practice cyber-warfare. The facilities also include forensic experiments and applications in a variety of scientific disciplines –anthropology, etymology, ballistics, serology and trace evidence among them.
Jones later said that the three undergraduate degrees – Cyber Security, Forensic Biology, and Global Security and Intelligence Studies – and the master of science degree program, which will begin this fall – are attracting the largest enrollments of any of the 23 degree programs at ERAU. QCBN
By Ray Newton
Quad Cities Business News
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