Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management Commandant Retires - Judy-Ann Carroll

DISAM Journal, Summer, 2001

Colonel Judy-Ann Carroll, U. S. Army, Commandant of the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management (DISAM), was honored with a retirement ceremony in the DISAM auditorium on May 25, 2001, recognizing her 29 years of military service. Presiding over the ceremony was Lieutenant General Tome H. Walters, Jr., Director, Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), and special guest was Robert Keltz, Deputy Director, DSCA.

Highlights of the ceremony included the presentation of the Defense Superior Service Medal and an American flag flown over the U.S. capitol to Colonel Carroll. The festivities concluded with a buffet lunch at the Wright-Patterson Officers' Club for the DISAM staff, family, and friends, including Colonel Carroll's sister and niece. The DISAM faculty and staff presented a shadow box of uniform insignia and career mementos to Colonel Carroll as a farewell gift.

A native of Bangor, Maine, Colonel Carroll graduated from the University of Maine in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science degree in foreign language education. She enlisted in the Army in 1972 and received a direct commission in 1973. She earned a masters degree in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School as a European specialist. A graduate of the Defense Language Institute, Colonel Carroll has a dual military specialty of military police and European foreign area officer. She has received the Defense Superior Service Medal (with one oak leaf cluster), the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Meritorious Service Medal (with two oak leaf clusters), the Army Commendation Medal (with one oak leaf cluster), the Joint Services Achievement Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal, as well as the Army and DoD Staff Identification Badges.

Colonel Carroll attended military specialty schools including the Women's Army Corps Officer Basic Course, the Military Police Basic and Advanced Course, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management. She is a 1997 Army War College graduate.

Throughout her career, Colonel Carroll held a wide variety of important staff and command positions. She orchestrated the peacetime engagement activities of security assistance with Western European allies and fostered the transition of the former Warsaw Pact Central European countries to democracy under the Joint Contact Team Program. She served two tours at Headquarters, United States European Command, one at the Pentagon, with a number of other assignments both in and outside of the Continental United States.

At Fort Huachuca, Colonel Carroll was the first Director of Public Safety in the Army, serving in that position where she was responsible for installation police, fire, safety and security. She also planned, executed and administered the prisoner of war operations for Desert Storm and managed the United States National Prisoner of War Information Center for all U.S. government agencies. Her operation was lauded by the International Committee of the Red Cross as "the best compliance of the Geneva Conventions of any country, in any war in history."

Colonel Carroll has extensive experience in force protection and resource management based on two tours as installation Provost Marshal at Darmstadt, Germany, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and assignment to the Pentagon, in the Army's Combating Terrorism Branch, managing security funds. She was also the Deputy Provost Marshal at Fort McPherson, Georgia, and commanded its Company B, Military Police, the Forces Command honor guard. Her anti-terrorism and force protection programs have won two Department of Defense awards. She is the recipient of an individual award for excellence in public safety from the Chief of Staff of the Army, and she is an honorary Arizona Ranger.

Colonel Carroll served as the DISAM commandant from June 30, 1997 to May 31, 2001. Upon her assignment, she brought to her position familiarity with needs of the personnel serving in security cooperation abroad in the security assistance organizations and in the security assistance directorates of the unified commanders. Consequently, her first efforts at DISAM were to revise the Overseas Course to incorporate additional material relevant to the requirements of those stationed abroad. Her initial step was to augment the training in anti-terrorism and force protection (AT/FP), a topic of grave concern given the uncertainties in many regions of the world. As a result, all personnel going abroad were trained to Level I as required by current AF/FP regulations. By incorporating additional AT/FP requirements in the CONUS Course, DISAM could insure that all personnel in the security assistance community with the likelihood of going overseas would have completed the Level I requirements without the additional effo rt and loss of time of having to attend another course. The course of instruction instituted was such a success that the institute received the Most Outstanding Antiterrorism Innovation/Action DoD Component Award in 1999 given out by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict.