Dan Bisbee | District Director of the Eastern WA Office for Congressman Michael Baumgartner
FFFFFfffffffffftttttt……puuppff!
That brief, exciting, and unpredictable sound of a model rocket shooting into the sky above an open stretch of farmland defines so many weekends of my youth growing up in the rural outskirts of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. After the late summer corn harvest was the best time to find the open space needed to locate my launcher and blast off my latest rocket, one of those Estes kits purchased at Kay Bee Toys with earnings from my summer job mowing the lawn at the local airport. That same field is where I convinced my father to help me drag out my telescope on several chilly pre-dawn mornings in the spring of 1986, cementing my bragging rights to the claim that I was there, tracking the appearance of Halley’s Comet, during its first go-around during the spaceflight era.
There has been a lot of ground covered between those days in central Pennsylvania and my current life here in the Inland Northwest. My trajectory, personally and professionally, is probably more similar to that of those model rockets than I would care to admit — somewhat erratic, and often subject to gravitational pulls and buffeted by capricious winds beyond my control. Yet it’s been a soft landing here in Spokane, and in the four years since my arrival I’ve really connected to this community and am very grateful to find myself in a position where my youthful passions are now proving conducive to my work advocating on behalf of this region’s development at the forefront of aerospace technology.
I attended the University of Pennsylvania on an Army ROTC scholarship and was assigned to 1-66th Armor Battalion at Fort Hood upon graduation, serving in various roles in an M1A1 Abrams tank unit. I was honored to get an officer’s commission in a combat arms branch where I was forced to pick up some very important leadership lessons. Ironically, in the mid-1990s, my first deployment was to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where my tank company ran a refugee camp for Cuban balseros, those seeking to flee the Castro regime. That mission left an impression on me. I started to realize that the distance between my small, rural Pennsylvania hometown and the frontlines of American foreign policy was not as far as I may have thought. The knowledge and experiences — and the very values I gained from my teachers, coaches, Boy Scout leaders, and those who fostered my upbringing in small-town, USA — that’s what was shaping my conduct as I led my soldiers on this deployment. My hometown made me, and here I was making foreign policy, albeit in a small way. Little did I know then, but it wouldn’t be the last time; and the next time wouldn’t be so small.
In February 2005 I received a Western Union telegram that said, in all capital letters, that I had been called out of inactive reserve to serve in Iraq. I believe my surprise at getting called up was matched by my surprise that the government still used telegrams. Instead of going with a tank unit, I was assigned to a Civil Affairs unit responsible for rebuilding government services in Baghdad. Essentially, I found myself in a position where I was a diplomat for the Army, working with the Mayor of Baghdad and other local officials to navigate political divides, push through bureaucratic inertia, and overcome technological challenges to provide basic services to a city of seven million — all of this in the midst of terrorism, sectarian warfare, extreme criminality, corruption, and humanitarian crisis.
When my Army tour was up, I was asked by the State Department to return for a second tour, which I did as a political officer for the Embassy — coinciding with the “Surge” of 2007-2008. During that 18-month tour, I facilitated the political component of our efforts to stabilize Iraq, particularly through the execution of the “Baghdad Security Plan” — a comprehensive strategy to foster coordination between rival Iraqi factions in order to legitimize the new governance regime and improve the delivery of basic services. The greatest indicator of success we witnessed in this effort was the return of mid-level bureaucrats and officials to their jobs. During the height of chaos and violence, these individuals fled — not wanting to get caught up in political feuds. As Baghdad stabilized, bureaucrats got back to work. That, in my opinion, is the success of the “Surge.”
I took this insight with me to the University of Pittsburgh and completed my PhD dissertation: “Metropolitan Battlefields: Urban topography and the weaponization of governance in Baghdad.” Aiming to condense what I had experienced in Baghdad into some kind of useful “lessons learned” document, I referenced both my Army and State Department deployments to build my argument about post-conflict governance strategy, should the U.S. ever find itself in a similar situation following regime change operations.
That brings me up to my new position here in Eastern Washington. When we talk about politics and governance there’s so much focus put on the drama and debates taking place at the highest levels — but let’s not lose sight of the crucial work being done, day in and day out, by those serving our communities in positions without fanfare.
There’s quite a bit of cynicism in today’s politics and that’s very understandable. Yet there’s still an excitement, a passion, and an optimistic attitude I keep seeing in the folks who just want to make the future better — from local, to national, to global issues — and I can’t help but feel better about the world. Like a kid standing in a cornfield, counting down…
