Rick Francona
born August 31, 1951
Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, USAF (Ret)
Place of birth	New Brighton, Pennsylvania
Allegiance	United States Air Force
Years of service	1970-1998
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	Defense Intelligence Agency National Security Agency Central Intelligence Agency
Battles/wars	Vietnam War Gulf War
Awards	Defense Distinguished Service Medal Defense Superior Service Medal Bronze Star Medal Air Medal (9)
Other work	NBC/MSNBC/CNBC military analyst

Rick Francona is a commentator and media military analyst. He is a retired United States Air Force intelligence officer with extensive operational experience in the Middle East, including tours of duty with the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. He is currently under contract to NBC News and appears regularly on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, as well as Radio Canada and other worldwide media. New Brighton is a borough located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. ... The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel is a rank of the United States armed forces which is currently used by the United States Army, United States Air Force and United States Marine Corps. ... The Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is a major producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense. ... The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is the U.S. governments cryptologic organization. ... The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States government. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf, Peter de la Billière, Khalid bin Sultan, Saleh Al-Muhaya, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Saddam Hussein Strength 883,863 360,000 Casualties 378 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War or the Persian Gulf War... The Defense Distinguished Service Medal is a United States military award which is presented for exceptionally distinguished performance of duty contributing to national security or defense of the United States. ... Defense Superior Service Medal The Defense Superior Service Medal of the United States is a senior decoration of the Department of Defense. ... The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration and is the fourth highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service. ... The Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States which was established by Executive Order 9158, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, on May 11, 1942. ... The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related mental abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is the U.S. governments cryptologic organization. ... The Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is a major producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense. ... The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States government. ... NBC News plug 2002-Today. ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... MSNBC, a combination of MSN and NBC, is a 24-hour cable news channel in the United States and Canada, and a news website. ... CNBC (an abbrevation for the Consumer News and Business Channel, its official name until 1991) is a group of cable and satellite television Business news channels from the U.S., owned and operated by NBC Universal. ... CBC redirects here, as this is the most common use of the abbreviation. ...

Background

Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona served for over 27 years in the United States Air Force, most of it in the Middle East. Fluent in Arabic, he served in the region with the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. The colonel has a bachelors degree from Chapman College (now Chapman University) in government and the Arabic language, and a masters degree from Troy State University in international relations with a concentration in Middle East studies. Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel is a rank of the United States armed forces which is currently used by the United States Army, United States Air Force and United States Marine Corps. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Troy University (formerly Troy State University) is a public university located in Troy, Pike County, Alabama and founded in 1887. ...

Lt Col Francona and his wife Emily, also a retired Air Force intelligence officer, reside on the Oregon coast.

Military service

Lt Col Rick Francona enlisted in the Air Force in 1970, and served as a Vietnamese linguist until 1973, conducting combat aerial reconnaissance missions over Vietnam and Laos in a variety of strategic and tactical aircraft. After Arabic language training, he served at a variety of locations in the Middle East from 1975 to 1977, and supported the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1976. In 1978, he became an Arabic language instructor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Crest of the Defense Language Institute The Defense Language Institute (DLI) is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers. ...

Following his commissioning in 1979, Lt Col 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 classified locations overseas. In 1984, he was assigned as an advisor to the Royal Jordanian Air Force in Amman, Jordan. Royal Jordanian Air Force insignia The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) (Al Quwwat al-Jawwiya Almalakiya al-Urduniya in Arabic) is the Aviation branch of the Jordanian armed forces. ...

In 1987, Lt Col Francona 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 Baghdad, Iraq, as a liaison officer to the Iraqi armed forces directorate of military intelligence. Lt Col Francona traveled extensively as an observer of Iraqi combat operations against Iranian forces, and flew sorties with the Iraqi air force. His observations were key to the discovery of Iraqi chemical weapons capabilities and ballistic missile modifications.

Rick Francona with Iraqi Lt Gen Sultan Hashim Ahmad at Gulf War ceasefire talks, Safwan, Iraq, March 3, 1991

Immediately following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August, 1990 and through the Gulf War, Lt Col Francona was deployed to the Gulf as the personal interpreter and advisor on Iraqi armed forces to commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. As such, he was the lead interpreter for ceasefire talks with the Iraqi military at Safwan, Iraq, in March, 1991. Emblem of the United States Central Command. ... Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. ...

After the end of the Gulf War, the colonel served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was a principal author of the Department of Defense report to Congress on the conduct of the Gulf war. In 1992, he was selected to be the first air attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, returning to the United States in early 1995. Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf, Peter de la Billière, Khalid bin Sultan, Saleh Al-Muhaya, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Saddam Hussein Strength 883,863 360,000 Casualties 378 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War or the Persian Gulf War... The United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense, concerned with the armed services and The Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. ... A military attaché is a military expert who is part of a diplomatic mission. ...

From 1995 to 1996, Lt Col Francona served with the Central Intelligence Agency, and participated in a variety of sensitive operations in the Middle East, including the escape of an Iraqi scientist's family. During one of these operations, he survived an attempt on his life by Iraqi Intelligence Service agents. The Iraqi Intelligence Service (Jihaz Al-Mukhabarat Al-Ama, also known as Mukhabarat, General Directorate of Intelligence, or Party Intelligence was the main state intelligence organization in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. ...

In 1996, the colonel was selected to develop the Department of Defense counterterrorism intelligence branch. In late 1997, the colonel led a special operations team supporting NATO forces in Bosnia. He returned to the United States and retired from active duty in 1998. NATO 2002 Summit in Prague. ... Motto: none Anthem: Intermeco Bosnia and Herzegovina() on the European continent()  —  [] Capital (and largest city)  Sarajevo Official languages Bosnian Croatian Serbian Government Parliamentary democracy  -  Presidency members NebojÅ¡a Radmanović1 Haris Silajdžić2 Željko KomÅ¡ić3  -  Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikola Å pirić  -  High Representative Christian Schwarz...

His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, and nine Air Medals, as well as campaign awards for service in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and the Balkans. The colonel was awarded the Central Intelligence Agency Seal Medallion for his service with that agency. In 2006, Lt Col Francona was inducted into the Defense Language Institute Hall of Fame. The Defense Distinguished Service Medal is a United States military award which is presented for exceptionally distinguished performance of duty contributing to national security or defense of the United States. ... Defense Superior Service Medal The Defense Superior Service Medal of the United States is a senior decoration of the Department of Defense. ... The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration and is the fourth highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service. ... The Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States which was established by Executive Order 9158, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, on May 11, 1942. ...

Commentary

Currently Lt Col Francona is a media analyst on Middle East political-military events currently under contract to NBC News and appears regularly on NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, MSNBC, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Scarborough Country, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and others. He also writes periodic articles for MSNBC, the Council on Foreign Relations, his blog at Middle East Perspectives, and is a regular blogger on the MSNBC Hardball Hardblogger. He frequently speaks to conventions and public service audiences. Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC hosted by Chris Matthews. ... Scarborough Country is an opinion/analysis show broadcasted on MSNBC Monday - Thursday at 9 P.M. ET. It is hosted by former congressman (R - Fla. ... Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long nightly newscast on MSNBC which airs live at 8:00 p. ... MSNBC, a combination of MSN and NBC, is a 24-hour cable news channel in the United States and Canada, and a news website. ... The Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American foreign policy think tank based in New York City. ...

Books

• 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.