Biography - Robert W Freniere

Civilian Education
B.S. Secondary Education, The Citadel, 1976
M.S. Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati 1981
M.A. Political Science, University of Cincinnati 1982
Ph.D./ABD, International Relations, University of Cincinnati, 1998
M.A. National Security and Strategic Studies, US Naval War College 2000

Military Education
US Army Airborne School, 1975
US Army Armor Officer School, 1976
US Army Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare School, 1978
US Air Force Intelligence Officer School, 1982
DIA’s Defense Intelligence Analyst School, 1984
Air Force Special Ops Command Dynamics of International Terrorism School, 1984
Air Force Special Ops Command Counterinsurgency/Low-Intensity Conflict School, 1985
Advance Airlift Tactics Training School, 1988
Combat Aircrew Training School, 1989
Air Force Special Ops Command Joint Psychological Operations School, 1991
Air Force Special Ops Command Middle East School, 1992
British Joint Warfare Staff Officer School, 1992
US Naval War College “In-Residence”, 1998

Biographical Profile

Professor Freniere entered active military service as a 2nd Lieutenant after graduating Distinguished Military Graduate, The Citadel in May of 1976. He was stationed at Schweinfurt, West Germany serving as an Armored Cavalry Reconnaissance Platoon Leader on the Czech and East Germany border as a member of A Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th US Cavalry. He transferred to Military Intelligence Branch in 1978 and served as the S-2 for the 3rd of the 67th Air Defense Artillery Battalion at Giebelstadt AB.

In April of 1979, he resigned his Regular commission for a US Army Reserve commission, serving as a counterintelligence officer in the 259th Military Intelligence Company, Sharonville, Ohio while pursuing his graduate degrees on Full Graduate Fellowships, teaching criminal investigation and American government to the respective undergraduate departments.

In 1982, he transferred to the Air Force Intelligence Service and upon graduating Air Force Intelligence Officer School he was posted as a Terrorism Watch Officer within the HQ Military Airlift Command’s Indications and Warning (I&W) Center until later that year being transferred to the USAF HQ Air Staff to perform his reserve officer duties in the Middle East Division. His terrorism I&W experience led to him becoming a full-time intelligence officer within the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Counterintelligence Division and serving as a Worldwide Terrorism Desk Officer in DIA’s National Military Intelligence Center in the Pentagon. After a two year stint with DIA he returned to the corporate sector as a national security analyst for the BDM Corporation’s Intelligence Division conducting counterterrorism and counterinsurgency studies for DIA and the CIA.

He continued his Air Force intelligence reserve duties within the Air Staff in the Europe/NATO and Tactical Divisions until being posted as the Chief of Intelligence for the 439th Airlift Wing (C-5As), Westover Air Force Base as a full time Air Force Reserve Air Technician. While serving in this capacity he took advantage of gaining the assistance of Dr. Vincent “Vinnie” Ferraro, Department Head for Mount Holyoke’s International Relations Department on his doctoral dissertation: "The United States, State-Sponsored Terrorism and Conventional Deterrence: An Examination of Operation El Dorado Canyon -- The Libyan Retaliatory Raids" During his tour at Westover he personally led his intelligence unit to being awarded the Military Airlift Command’s Outstanding Intelligence Unit of the Year for its direct intelligence support to both ground units and aircrews in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. He then went on to lead the same unit to the Air Mobility Command’s Outstanding Intelligence Unit of the Year twice more, in two consecutive years (1993 & 1994), and was personally awarded the Air Mobility Command’s 1995 Outstanding Reserve Field Grade Officer of the Year.

Upon reaching the grade of Lieutenant Colonel, he was selected for the US Naval War College “in-residence” program and while in attendance was selected as the first-ever Air Force Officer to serve on the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (CNOSSG). In his role as an Associate Fellow, his concept generation team’s research contributed to the overall strategic analysis of how the US Navy would fight in the littorals in 2025. His specific research on an innovative structured approach to combine intelligence requirements and the theoretical concepts manifested in a complexity theory model to target future adversaries was published as Presence with an Attitude in the US Naval Institutes’ PROCEEDINGS in October of 2000 and also as Complexity-Based Targeting: New Sciences Provide Effects in the Spring 2003 AIR & SPACE POWER Journal. After graduating Naval War College he was posted in the HQs USAF Directorate of Strategic Planning as the Deputy Division Chief for the Future Concept Development Division. Here he and his team were charged with developing future force structure and aerospace warfare policy for the USAF and including his serving as the Director of the Air Force Wargamming apparatus for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Before leaving the Directorate for Strategic Planning he was asked to develop the first-ever Air Force Strategic Studies Group along the architecture and modus operandi of the US Navy’s CNOSSG.

In February of 2003, he was recruited onto the Joint Staff to first serve as the Joint Staff’s Liaison Officer (LNO) to the US Central Command’s HUMINT Cell for Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, within a very short time, his portfolio was expanded drastically to include becoming Special Assistant to the Vice Director for Operations, then, Major General Stanley A. McChrystal, with his main emphasis as Program Manager for the “Digitization-of-the-Joint Staff” project, as well as serving as the Joint Staff Operations Officer for the National Security Council’s Policy Coordinating Committee Counterpropaganda Threat Panel, the Joint Staff LNO to the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in the operationalizing of a new weapon system employed to find High Value targets in the OIF Area of Operation. Finally, he also served on the Joint Staff as a working member on the “Night-Fist” Cell working North Korean threats and served on various shifts as the Director, HQs USAF Crisis Action Team.

Colonel Freniere’s final military assignment was his position as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Base Realignment and Closure. In July of 2006, he retired off the Air Staff as a Colonel and served a tour as a Senior Instructor at the Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. He then accepted a position as the Special Assistant to DIA’s Office for Counterintelligence (DCA) and currently he works in DIA’s new Defense Counterintelligence and HUMINT Center as the Team Lead for DIA’s Counterintelligence Support to the Joint Staff and the COCOMS. He assumed duties at AMU as an Adjunct Professor for the Graduate Intelligence and National Security Studies program in October, 2009.