Rick Francona

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Richard Carmon Francona
Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, USAF (Ret)
Nickname(s)"Rick"
Born (1951-08-31) August 31, 1951 (age 72)
New Brighton, Pennsylvania
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Air Force
Years of service1970–1998
RankLieutenant colonel
UnitDefense Intelligence Agency
National Security Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
Battles/warsVietnam War
Gulf War
Yugoslav Wars
AwardsDefense Distinguished Service Medal
Defense Superior Service Medal
Bronze Star
Air Medal (9)
Other workNBC/MSNBC/CNBC military analyst

Rick Francona (born 31 August 1951) is an author, commentator and media military analyst. He is a retired

Radio Canada and other media.[citation needed] In 2013, he became a military analyst with CNN
.

Background

Francona served for over 27 years in the U.S. Air Force, most of it in the Middle East. Fluent in

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona.[citation needed
]

Francona and his wife Emily, also a retired Air Force intelligence officer, reside in Port Orford, Oregon.

Military service

Francona enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1970, and served as a Vietnamese linguist until 1973, conducting combat aerial

Beirut, Lebanon in 1976. In 1978, he became an Arabic language instructor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.[citation needed
]

Following his commissioning in 1979, Francona was an instructor at the Air Force Intelligence School in

Denver, Colorado. From 1982 to 1984, he was a Middle East operations officer with the National Security Agency in the United States and overseas. In 1984, he was assigned as an advisor to the Royal Jordanian Air Force in Amman, Jordan.[citation needed
]

In 1987, he was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as the assistant defense intelligence officer for the Middle East. During this assignment, he spent much of 1987 and 1988 at the U.S. Embassy in

chemical weapons capabilities and ballistic missile modifications.[citation needed
] Immediately following the Iraqi invasion of
Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr
. As such, he was the lead interpreter for ceasefire talks with the Iraqi military at Safwan, Iraq, in March 1991.

After the end of the Gulf War, Francona served in the Office of the

air attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, returning to the United States in 1995.[citation needed
]

From 1995 to 1996, Francona served with the Central Intelligence Agency, and participated in a variety of sensitive operations in the Middle East. During one of these operations, he survived an attempt on his life by Iraqi Intelligence Service agents. He was later awarded the CIA Bronze Seal Medallion for his service to the CIA.[citation needed]

In 1996, he was selected to lead the development of a Joint Services counterterrorism intelligence branch. As a direct result of the success in creating this special Task Force, he was asked to lead a special operations team supporting NATO forces in Bosnia in late 1997. He returned to the United States and retired from active duty in 1998.[citation needed]

Commentary

Francona is a media analyst on Middle East political-military events, formerly under contract to NBC News and appeared regularly on NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, MSNBC, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Scarborough Country, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and others. He also writes articles for MSNBC, the Council on Foreign Relations, and his blog at Middle East Perspectives. He frequently speaks to conventions and public service audiences.[citation needed]

In 2010, Francona appeared as a subject matter expert on the Iraqi military and Saddam Hussein in an episode of Spike TV's "Who is the Deadliest Warrior." In 2013, he began working as a military analyst for CNN, commenting on the Syrian civil war and chemical warfare issues, and in 2014 on the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

Pentagon military analyst program

In April 2008, documents obtained by New York Times reporter David Barstow revealed that Francona had been recruited as one of over 75 retired military officers involved in the Pentagon military analyst program. Participants appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op-ed columns. The program was launched in early 2002 by then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke. The idea was to recruit "key influentials" to help sell a wary public on "a possible Iraq invasion."[1]

References

  1. ^ David Barstow, "Behind Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand," New York Times, April 20, 2008.

External links

  • Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1999;
    ISBN 1-55750-281-1. Cited as one of the top ten regional books of the year by The Oregonian
    newspaper.
  • Chasing Demons: My Hunt for War Criminals in Bosnia, Francona Advisors, Monterey, CA, 2012.
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
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