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Maj. Gen. Chris Ballard \u201984, commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM)<\/p><\/div>\n
This led Ballard\u00a0to Furman’s Department of Military Science (ROTC). \u201cI had no intention of going into the Army,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cI just wanted to know if there were any scholarships available.\u201d He\u00a0applied for and was awarded a three-year ROTC scholarship. \u201cThat scholarship allowed me to get to graduation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Back in those days, according to Ballard, you paid back two years for every year of scholarship, and for him, this meant four years active duty and two years reserve. \u201cI graduated in 1984,\u201d he says. \u201cThis was during the Reagan buildup, so there were an awful lot of opportunities and programs that the Defense Department was allowing at that time. So I applied to delay coming on active duty so I could go to graduate school.\u201d After two years at Indiana University in Bloomington where he earned a\u00a0master’s degree in international relations, he\u00a0entered active duty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came on active duty, we thought we would just pay back the scholarship,\u201d Ballard\u00a0says, referring to he and his wife\u2019s plan. \u201cOur first duty assignment was in Germany in the late \u201980s. We were stationed north of Frankfurt in \u201989 when the wall came down and were there for that whole change . . . which was particularly exciting for a political science and German major. I\u2019ve had several tours in the\u00a0Pacific, two tours in Hawaii, one in Korea, a couple in Kansas and Texas. I\u2019ve had three combat tours, two in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq. Every time we thought we would shift gears and do something else, the Army would offer us a new challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today Ballard\u00a0is assigned to Fort Belvoir Army base in northern Virginia where he is the commanding general of U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), a unit comprised of approximately 17,500 uniformed, civilian, and contracted personnel working daily in nearly 180 locations in forty-five countries across the globe. INSCOM leverages the capabilities of the US Intelligence Community to support tactical military commanders in the execution and accomplishment of their missions. \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing now, at a senior level within the military, is really about the broader concepts of national security,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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