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Colonel
Samuel L. Grier
Permanent Professor 1995–2001
B.S., United States Air Force Academy
M.S., University of Colorado
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Sam Grier, the Academy’s 61st Permanent Professor, was born in 1951 in Bethesda, Maryland, and spent his formative years in Hawaii and Fairfax County, Virginia. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1973 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He attended pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ, and began his career flying the KC-135 at Loring AFB, ME. In 1979 he received Academy sponsorship for a Master’s degree in Computer Science and attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, earning his degree in 1980 and returning to the Academy to teach in his discipline. At the Academy, Sam ran the newly installed computer scoreboard at Falcon Stadium and maintained a database of graduates for the Association of Graduates, which was used to produce the annual Register of Graduates. In addition to teaching, Sam flew as a T-41 Instructor Pilot, giving many cadets their first Air Force flying experience. Following his faculty assignment, Sam was assigned to Fairchild AFB, WA, in 1983 where he upgraded to KC-135 Instructor Pilot and assumed responsibility as Chief of KC-135 Flight Standardization and Evaluation. He also flew in the Strategic Air Command’s annual bombing and navigation competition, where his crew received the highest score ever recorded in the history of the competition and earned the honor of “Best KC-135 Crew in Strategic Air Command.” In 1986 Sam entered the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his PhD in Computer Science in 1989. He next was assigned to Strategic Air Command at Offutt AFB, NE, as Chief of Mission Planning Systems and then as Speechwriter for CINCSAC. He was appointed one of five Senior Controllers at SAC’s worldwide command center during the period of the First Gulf War and when Strategic Air Command stood down its Alert Force. Graduating from the NATO Defense College, Rome, Italy, in 1992, Sam was posted to NATO HQ, Brussels, Belgium, as Chief of NATO’s Situation Center shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and during the brutal conflict in the former Yugoslavia. From there, in 1995 he was selected as Permanent Professor and named Head of the Department of Computer Science. During his tenure, the department adopted the Ada computer language as the basis for its software curriculum, consistently scored in the top 3 percent of more than 200 universities in a national exam of senior students, and he established the Academy’s computer laboratory and associated courses in cyber defense in cooperation with the Air Force Computer Warfare Center. In 1998 he took a sabbatical back to the NATO Defense College to establish the College’s Academic Research Branch. He retired from the Air Force in 2001.
Following his active duty service, Sam joined the Institute for Defense Analyses, assigned to the Joint National Integration Center, Schriever AFB, CO, where he helped develop the initial technical and operational concepts for integrated, global ballistic missile defense. In 2004 Sam again returned to the NATO Defense College, serving as its Dean until 2007. Since 2007 he has been with the MITRE Corporation, working with the US Missile Defense Agency in Colorado and supporting the NATO Ballistic Missile Defense program for two years in the Netherlands.