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Brigadier General
Thomas A. Drohan
Permanent Professor 1999–2017
B.S., United States Air Force Academy
M.A., University of Hawaii
Ph.D., Princeton University
Tom Drohan, the Academy’s 67th Permanent Professor, was born in Paris, France, in 1957. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1979 with a major in International Affairs/National Security Studies. Tom’s first assignment was to the University of Hawaii as an East-West Center scholar, where he earned a Master’s degree in Political Science in 1980. He then went to undergraduate pilot training at Reese AFB, TX, followed by a tour as an HC-130 Combat Rescue Pilot at Kadena Air Base, Japan, 1982–1985. He first came to the Academy faculty in the Department of Political Science, 1985–1988, during which time he also taught cadets to fly the T-41 aircraft. He next went to Princeton for three years, where he earned his PhD in Politics in 1991. Returning directly to the Academy, Tom was Chief, Comparative Politics & Area Studies Division, Department of Political Science, while continuing his work as a T-41 Instructor Pilot. From 1995 to 1998 he flew as a C-130 Tactical Airlift Pilot and Flight Commander, 23rd Operational Support Squadron, and then as Director of Staff and Director of Operations, 41st Airlift Squadron, Pope AFB, NC. During this time, he was deployed as Commander, 4410th Airlift Squadron, Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, and as Commander, 38th Airlift Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, Germany. In 1999 Tom spent a year as a Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations at the Institute for International Policy Studies and at the National Institute for Defense Studies, Tokyo, Japan. He returned to the Academy in 1999 as the Permanent Professor of Military and Strategic Studies (and concurrently the Commander, 34th Education Group) under the Commandant of Cadets (the Commander, 34th Training Wing). Tom reorganized the Military Art and Science curriculum and established Military and Strategic Studies as a disciplinary academic major. From 2003 to 2004 he also served as Vice Commandant for Operations. Tom was on sabbatical from 2004 to 2005 in a dual role as Chief, Antiterrorism and Force Protection Division, United States Forces Korea, and Chief, Missile Defense Division, Combined Forces Command, Korea. In 2005 as he returned to the Academy, the Military and Strategic Studies program was transferred to the Dean of Faculty as the Department of Military and Strategic Studies. From 2006 to 2010, Tom deployed to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan each year as a curriculum advisor for military and airpower studies. He also had a sabbatical in 2012 as Visiting Scholar at the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he researched Asian security, strategy, and warfare. A prolific author, his publications include two books—American–Japanese Security Agreements (2007) and A New Strategy for Complex Warfare (2016)—and many articles on defense strategy, Asian security, and military education. He is a Command Pilot with more than 2,000 flying hours. He was promoted to brigadier general and retired in 2017 to become Dean of the National Defense College, United Arab Emirates.