David (’10): Analyzing Geospatial Intelligence

Inspired by the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks, David pursued a career where he could provide intelligence to support the War on Terror. After completing his M.A. at IWP in 2010, he began working full-time at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). There, he saw some of the fruits of his work: his analysis was directly related to the removal of terrorists from the battlefield.

Today, he continues his work as an Imagery Analyst at NGA, primarily focusing on providing geospatial intelligence support to the warfighter.

Pursuing a Career in Intelligence

“I was in high school when 9/11 happened,” recalls David. “I was very upset, and I wanted to help the war effort in some way. I thought a war against terrorism would need a lot of intelligence to find where the terrorists were hiding.”

He studied history and political science at Gettysburg College, where one of his professors introduced him to IWP. David later interned at IWP, and, soon afterwards, began the M.A. program in Strategic Intelligence Studies.

During his studies, David interned for a historian at the U.S. Navy who later became the historian at NGA. David interned for him again, this time at NGA. After working in the historian’s office, he was placed in another NGA internship with an analytic branch focused on global security forces.

When he finished his M.A. at IWP, David was brought on full-time at NGA and underwent the six-month training for imagery analysts.

The IWP Education in Action

As a new employee at NGA, David found that, thanks to his IWP education, “I came in with a better understanding of how things worked at the highest levels than a lot of my peers.”

One thing emphasized in David’s training was the importance of analytic rigor, the intellectual honesty that has to come with the job, the critical thinking involved, and the mental traps that analysts can fall into. If an analyst interprets something the wrong way, it can have serious consequences. “I walked in already understanding all those concepts thoroughly, thanks to IWP,” said David. “That was a big help.”

One of the most valuable things David got from his IWP education was the confidence and ability to stand up for the truth.

“If you are making an analytic call that could be contentious, people will fight you on it,” he said. “You have to be ready to make a logical case before you take it to leadership. I learned how to do that at IWP. I understood the importance of being able to build your case thoroughly, being able to defend it, and having the moral courage to do so even if everyone else says you’re wrong.”

If someone else is wrong, it can take the same sort of moral courage to point it out. It also requires solid evidence to support the view that an alternative explanation is more likely. “This is a scary thing to do, especially when you are new,” David said. “Having the grounding knowing that is the right thing to do – and how to do it – is very valuable and will take you through the rest of your career.”

An Impact on our National Security

David used these IWP lessons daily at NGA, where his initial work focused on trying to prosecute terrorist groups. “I have seen a lot of times where my analysis related directly to terrorists being taken off the battlefield,” said David. “It was an exciting time.”

During that time, he deployed for a total of two years, embedding with other agencies or the military. He supported U.S. and partner forces’ operations and trained local security forces.

While deployed, it became all the more important that he provided an excellent intelligence product. “If the people there didn’t know me, I had to show that I was worth trusting,” said David. “There are people’s lives on the line. They won’t trust you if they don’t know you’re reliable.”

His colleagues soon came to trust him after David produced valuable intelligence for them. “I had to take it upon myself to figure out what they needed, and then I made it for them,” he said. “You get people to trust you by results.”

David also found himself training local security forces – through an interpreter. It was a challenge to teach a technical topic with a language barrier, but he strove to conduct himself in class like all of his best professors.

IWP connections followed him while deployed. Once, he was talking with the local people from an area many people have not studied, much less interacted with. David had attended an IWP lecture with speakers from this relatively unknown area, and he talked with them afterwards. While deployed, David said, “I told them that I had met local people before. They were agog there had been representatives speaking about their people in D.C.! It was neat to have something in common to talk about.”

Reflections on Work at NGA

“I love this job,” said David. “I’m a liberal arts kid at heart. To take that education, from high school onwards, and my interest in history and apply it to a very technical job with a lot of maps and science is challenging and interesting. There is always a new emerging technology or analytic tool to try, and all that keeps the job fresh.”

David’s day-to-day work is often on the very granular level. He has a set of targets to monitor, and, in addition to analyzing the imagery, he reads reporting on the topic and talks to colleagues across the Intelligence Community and military to see if there are any new developments.

Often, he will do a deep dive into a topic, trying to identify patterns, figure out if and why it’s important, and what it means for the United States.

The most rewarding part for David is to share his analysis in written form: “I love to publish a report and have written something with my name on it.”