Yearbook photo

Yearbook name: Melvin Leon Gamble (Mel)

Life and times:

After graduating from George Marshall, I attended Howard University college as a pre-law student but graduated with a degree in History in 1971. During this period I took a semester off to join the DC National Guard and served as a Military Policeman (1970-76). I took my basic military training at Ft. Jackson, SC and military police training at Ft. Gordon, GA. After finishing at Howard, I took the LSAT and was accepted at George Washington law school for the following year. While waiting to start law school, I worked as a summer employee at the CIA. They convinced me to delay law school and join the Agency as an Operations Officer. After completing training, I was assigned to Los Angeles for three years and obtained my MSci in International Public Administration at USC. Following this assignment, I went overseas and served five tours in Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Liberia and South Africa) and one tour in Mexico. I learned German (high school/college), French (Burkina Faso) and Spanish (Mexico). During the fall of the Soviet Union, I was responsible for Central Asia and the Caucasus, and traveled to all of the new countries to set up relations with the Presidents and their chiefs of intelligence. The exception was Tajikistan—there was a coup each time I attempted to travel there. I was promoted to the Senior ranks and became Deputy Chief of Europe Division (2002) where I interacted with the Directors of Intelligence Services and senior leaders of those countries. This was an interesting time because it led up to the Iraqi war. I subsequently became Chief of Africa Division (2003-06) and met with the Presidents and Chiefs of Intelligence Services. In both positions I interacted regularly with my State Dept and DOD counterparts who were Assistant or Undersecretary for Europe or African Affairs. I also met and interacted with NSC officers as well as the military commanders of JSOC, CENTCOM, EUCOM, and AFRICOM.

I retired in 2008 and joined a commercial firm, Electronic Warfare Associates, as their Director of Special Initiatives which entailed business development in Africa and the Middle East. In 2011, I left EWA to join another company, DGI, as VP for Afghanistan Business Development. I traveled frequently to Afghanistan. I started my own company in 2012 but served as a consultant to EWA, DGI, Veracity Inc., and GPSG.

I was married and divorced twice. I have four children—three daughters (Malaika who is married with four children and a granddaughter; Anisa who is a junior at Virginia Tech; and Michaela whom we adopted from South Africa and is a freshman at Herndon HS); and a son, Hasani, who served in the Marines and is now working for State Department.

I work, play golf (used to play a lot of tennis!!), love good restaurants, and travel in the U.S. and overseas as much as possible for business and pleasure.

Best, Mel