Tom Wither

Tom Wither is a thirty-two-year Air Force intelligence professional and twenty-five-year affiliate of the National Security Agency.

After joining the Air Force in 1987 and completing initial intelligence training at Goodfellow AFB, Texas, he served as a Signals Intelligence Analyst and Advisory Support Analyst during various assignments. A veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he provided time-critical information to the Joint Rescue Coordination Center, which led to the safe extraction of downed allied airborne personnel and location data that resulted in the destruction of 25 strategic targets.

After completing a six-month long analytic training program with NSA in 1994, he served as an Intelligence Analyst and Senior Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Air Force gaining his NSA certification as an intelligence analyst.

After leaving active duty for a civilian position with the Air Force as a Special Projects Officer, Tom worked directly with varied elements of the intelligence community, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and other Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence managed special activities. During this period, Tom earned his certification as an Intelligence Community Officer (currently known as the Joint Duty Assignment program) and led signals intelligence analytic teams.

Following his promotion to Technical Director, Tom advised Air Force senior leaders on the production of signals intelligence and the legal, policy, and technical constraints of those activities. In addition, Tom led the design and implementation of unique signals intelligence processing and storage systems supporting Air Force space and cyber operations during Operations ENDURING FREEDOM, IRAQI FREEDOM, NEW DAWN, and INHERENT RESOLVE.

Tom also participated in the coordination, targeting, and approval process for Operation INHERENT RESOLVE combat actions to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) with Air Force non-kinetic capabilities, gaining Secretary of Defense level approval for his unit's intelligence operations to underpin those capabilities.

In addition to his other military and civilian awards, Tom was most recently awarded the Exemplary Civilian Service Award for his work that led to a major degradation of ISIS command and control, the destruction of one of their headquarters facilities, and the liberation of Raqqah, Syria from ISIS control.