Allegiance United States Rank Captain | Years of service 2004-2014 Awards Combat Action Ribbon | |
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
NCIS
DIA Battles/wars Operation Enduring Freedom
Operation Iraqi Freedom Battles and wars Operation Enduring Freedom, Iraq War | ||
Eric Kirsch is a combat veteran and former intelligence office in the United States Marine Corps. Following his service in the Marine Corps he continued his service in working with the Defense Intelligence Agency, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and as a civilian contractor working in support of the Department of State in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Contents
In 2015 he was publicly recognized when invited to speak during the Pritzker Military Museum's ON WAR Military History Symposium. He has also been a featured guest of radio broadcasts focusing on military and veterans issues. His interest in history, cooking, current events, and a varitey of other subjects led him towards writing and in early 2016 he launched his own website which features his own writing as well as that of others.
Education
Eric attended The Citadel on an NROTC Scholarship and graduated in 2004, at which time he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. In 2006 he graduated the Marine Air Ground Task Force Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence School and was assigned the Military Occupational Specialty of 0204 Human Source Intelligence Officer.
In 2008 he attended and graduated advanced training in counterintelligence operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy. Continuing with his service to the Marine Corps, he joined the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in 2009 and was sent to both NCIS Special Agent Basic Training and the Criminal Investigator Training Program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
Website
EricGKirsch.com launched in early 2016 as a tool to keep record of Eric's stories, experiences, and thoughts on a variety of subjects. The website is an open platform for other writers to submit articles too as well. Writers are encouraged to submit articles so long as they are honest and well written to ensure that they fit in with the other writings on the site.
A Closer Look
A Closer Look is the title of the About Me page on EricGKirsch.com. It provides an overview of his career and experiences as well as information on writing for the site and the video of his discussion with the Pritzker Military Museum. The following is an excerpt from the biographical portion of the page:
Eric graduated with honors in 2004 from The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA. He was then commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps the same year and honorably discharged as a Captain after 8 years’ service in 2012.
During his time as a Marine, Eric successfully completed training and earned the 0204 MOS, Counterintelligence / Human Source Intelligence Officer designator and served as Human Intelligence Exploitation Team (HET) Officer in Charge during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Afterwards, Eric was selected for a clandestine “B-Billet” and successfully graduated from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA), Elkridge, MD in 2008, earning the title of “Case Officer” and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy, Glynco, GA in 2009 earning the title Special Agent, of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).
Eric was then assigned to the NCIS, Washington DC Field Office’s (DCWA) Foreign Counterintelligence “A” Squad and was responsible for multiple named Offensive Foreign Counterintelligence Operations (OFCO). Mr. Kirsch’s experience includes Marine Corps active duty combat deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom, in 2006-2007-2008 (2), Operation Enduring Freedom in 2011 (Helmand Province, Afghanistan) (1), DIA JCITA OFCO Instructor (2013), NCIS Civilian Special Agent (2014), and served as advisor to the American Government, and Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) as a civilian in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 & 2015.
Since his honorable discharge in 2012, Kirsch has served as an Offensive Counterintelligence Operations instructor at JCITA; as a civilian Special Agent with NCIS; and as a civilian Advisor to the American Government and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is the founder and CEO of Torchlight USA.