“Good to see our colleagues. A great event!”

– CAPT Chris Bott, USN-Ret.

The 2019 Red Tie luncheon was held Friday, 03 May at the elegant new clubhouse at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington.

(View to the 18th green from the clubhouse).

Here are Capt Bott and Dr Boyd enjoying Vince Fragomen’s ’s “back to the future” cell phone, trying to raise communications with NIP’s Jimmy Olsen, Cub Reporter Vic Socotra. Also sitting at the prestigious table was Mike Decker, John Hedlund, Denny Dubois and Bob Jeungling.

Tim Wright, a shipmate from VF-84 was there with his wife Dixie to celebrate their daughter Lynn receive the Red Tie Award. ADM Studeman, VADM Jacoby, RADMs Porterfield, Becker, Train, and Mannzelman, were all there.

Most surprising though was Retired Chariman of the Joint Staff, ADM Mike Mullen made a cameo appearance at the social hour before lunch. According to our venerable Joe Mazzafro “He looks “tanned, rested. And ready! This was a good event! Glad I went!”

The Bott and Boyd families were merry, as was Joe Maz, of course. Midway shipmate Rich Gragg made an appearance but told John Hedlund he has continuing health issues. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

Remarks on the state of all-source analysis were the subject of special guest Neil Wiley, DIA’s Director for analysis. He has crafted a strategy to DIA’s standards and policies on tradecraft and DIA public affairs. You can find it with a search for DOD Instruction 3115.17 (Oversight and Management of DoD All-Source Analysis).

“We’ve been aggressively investing in initiatives to strengthen analytic tradecraft and analytic processes. We established the Defense Analytic Tradecraft Council to coordinate and implement analytic tradecraft and process improvements across the Enterprise – most noteworthy thus far have been the implementation of an enterprise-wide analytic ombudsman program, and a common process for analytic product evaluations.”

“We’ve expanded professional analysts career education through the addition of a 10-day course for DIA analysts offered both in the national capital region and at the combatant commands, stressing and exercising Intelligence Community Directive 203 tradecraft standards and analytic design,” said Neil.

It was a stimulating discussion of how the all-source craft will move ahead in today’s challenging data landscape.

The Red Tie this year- (in this case, a scarf!) awardee was Ms. Lynn Wright, longtime Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence.

Ms. Wright has served as Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence and the Director of the Naval Intelligence Activity. In these positions, she supported the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare / Director of Naval Intelligence (OPNAV N2N6) in delivering comprehensive substantive intelligence to Navy leadership, oversees intelligence activities and policy within the Navy, and represented the Navy within the Intelligence Community.

Integration of the intelligence components of the Navy was a unique challenge, and Lynn served with distinction.

She was appointed to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service in June 2013 and has a background in operational and tactical intelligence and strategic policy development. She has served in various leadership positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Joint Staff, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, NATO (Afghanistan), theater commands, and combat support agencies.

Her award is richly deserved. NIP Chairman Tony Cothron presented the award with pride:

With the Virginia Gold Cup and Kentucky Derby to add to the weekend, this was a fabulous event. Reserve a spot on your your calendar to attend the Fall NIP Annual Meeting. This was a great event!