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CTI Veteran Q&A Series: Richard Trundy

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Give us some background and a summary on your military experience: Joined the service in Nov 1979; the same week that 70 American Hostages were taken in Iran. I spent half of my military career working is Special Operations serving as a Company and Battalion Fire Support SGT and Acting ACo. FSO with 1st Bn, 75th Ranger Regt. (Jumped into Granada in Oct 83). After my overseas "Hardship" tour in Hawaii, I was heading back to 75th Ranger Regt. where I was pulled and put on special assignment with SOCCENT supporting 3rd Bn 5th Special Forces Group down range during the Gulf War. After the war I spent 4 years as an O/C at JRTC and was then assigned to USAJFKSWC as the Ranger Regt. LNO.


Other Big Army jobs were; 1SG at Fort Bragg and Ft Lewis as well as the acting 18th ABN Corps Fire Support Sergeant Major.


I retired in Spring of 2000, and went into investment banking in the Pacific NW for a few years when the unthinkable happened and was asked to assist in supporting the War on Terror after 9-11. I ended up as a weapons and tactics trainer for ARCENT and CENTCOM in Kuwait for the next few years. Due to my background in Kuwait and JRTC, I was asked to be part of a 25-man Special Operations Team to work with the newly formed Africa Union (AU) in Rwanda. We were given the task of training the Rwandan Special Forces BN that would be operating in Darfur.


After my stent in Africa ended, I found myself back in the Middle East working out of Iraq and Afghanistan under OSD’s Power Surety Task Force (PSTF). The mission was to advise and introduce new technologies in support of Operational Energy for OP’s, COP’s, COB’s, and FOB’s. I was pulled from Afghanistan in the middle of my third tour to support a problem in USINDOPACOM’s AOR. Once I  completed the INDOPACOM's tasker, the J8 asked OSD to have me reassigned to the Pacific where I spent six years working Operational Energy in the J81 Innovation and Experimentation Division for the Pacific AOR.


Three years ago, I join the J81 SOF Team lead by Dr Steve Kiser and then newly retired SOCPAC CSM JC Cruz, where I currently work for CTIC as a Senior SOF Specialist. 


Why did you decide to transition out of the military? I was ready to retire and my body was crushed.


Why did you choose CTI? It just made sense, and was the most likely progression for the J81 SOF Team to aline with the Prime of all our contracts; remove the middleman. In addition, I felt that the company’s values and beliefs were in sync with mine and I liked the culture and youth of the organization


What are you currently working on at CTI? And how does your past experience in the military contribute to this? I am currently working on material and non-material solutions to enhance the Joint SOF Communities ability to conduct operations within the USINDOPACOM AOR. My past military experience contributes to this effort by having the ability to understand change but not breaking the principal of the mission set.


From your perspective as a veteran, what is your opinion of CTI's approach using GOTS and open software solutions? Do you think it is or could be impactful to active duty personnel? Why and how? CTI's approach using GOTS and open software solutions is the fastest way to put the right tools into the warfighters hands without fleecing the services. It allows for them to give the developer constant feedback on what works and what doesn’t. It also allows for the warfighter to self-discover/develop different ways to utilize the given tools in ways we may not have thought. Having the ability to look at a problem from the outside in, as well as understanding what the warfighters capability gaps are, allows us to develop solutions on their behalf that impact current and future mission planning, training, and execution.