Colonel Sue Ann Sandusky

Colonel Sue Ann Sandusky olonel Sue Ann Sandusky is an Army Foreign Area Officer (regional specialist) for Sub-Saharan Africa. She has served as the Defense and Army Attache in U.S. Embassies in Liberia (1997-1998), Democratic Republic of Congo (1998-2001), Cote d’Ivoire (2001-2004), and Nigeria (2004-2006). Her most recent assignment was as the Director of African Studies at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA.

Colonel Sandusky enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1975. She was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve in 1981. She entered active duty as a captain, Adjutant General’s Corps, in 1983, joining the Department of Social Sciences faculty at the US Military Academy at West Point where she taught political science. From 1988-1991, Colonel Sandusky served in the Republic of Korea, first as an administrative officer on the J5 staff, US Forces Korea in Seoul, then as the Director of Personnel and Community Activities, Special Troops Combined Field Army, Camp Red Cloud, and finally as the S1/Adjutant, Division Support Command, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey. Selected for the Foreign Area Officer program, she completed French language training at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey in 1992 and then in-country training in Zimbabwe where she attended the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Staff College. In 1993, Colonel Sandusky was assigned to the newly created Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), headquartered in Moenchengladbach, Germany. During this three-year assignment, she worked in personnel plans and in political-military positions. When the ARRC deployed to the former Yugoslavia as part of the Implementation Force (IFOR) in December 1995, Colonel Sandusky served initially as the principal personnel officer in Split, Croatia, and then as the military assistant to the Chief of Faction Liaison in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Born in Houston, Texas, Colonel Sandusky has a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and government from Texas Christian University (1974), a Master of Arts degree in Soviet and East European Area Studies from the University of London (1977), a Master of Philosophy degree in political science from Columbia University (1982) and a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the US Army War College (2002). She was a Rotary International Fellow, 1976-1977, at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London.

Her awards are the Defense Superior Service Medal with an oak-leaf cluster, Defense Intelligence Agency Director’s Award and Department of State Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards. A former world champion in international rifle shooting, Sandusky also holds the Distinguished International Shooter Badge, the Distinguished Rifleman Badge and the President’s Hundred tab.