Education: MA, National Security and Strategic Studies, US Naval War College MA, Management, US Naval Postgraduate School BS, History, Kansas State University

Captain (Ret) Robert E. Dunn is an aviation operations and program management executive with diverse federal government experience in national counternarcotics policy development, Homeland Security flight operations, aviation training and standardization, and facilities management.  He has strong qualifications in interagency coordination, strategic planning, and the leveraging of technology.

As a career military officer, CAPT Dunn was the Coast Guard Representative to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) where he provided insight and counsel on interdiction, aviation, and Coast Guard issues to the ONDCP Director.  He also served on the National Security Counsel in the Office for Combating Terrorism as the Acting Director for Drugs and Latin America where he coordinated the expansion of the US Drug Kingpin Sanctions List and helped to facilitate a new US Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghan Heroin.

CAPT Dunn held a wide variety of operational and Headquarters staff assignments during his 30-year military career.  He commanded Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point where he prototyped a number of C4ISR systems that dramatically improved operational capability while providing aviation support to the Fourteenth Coast Guard District..  An accomplished Aviation Program Analyst at Coast Guard Headquarters, he authored a cost-benefit study that validated the need for a two-helicopter system, justified the procurement of the HH-60J helicopter, and determined their siting.  CAPT Dunn wrote the Coast Guard’s “Proactive Defense In-depth” air interdiction strategy in support of President Reagan’s 1986 counter-narcotics initiative, then completed all program planning and budgeting for the siting and implementation of the Coast Guard’s E-2C and Air Interdiction programs.  He also planned and executed the BRAC transition of two Coast Guard Air Stations. As Chief of Coast Guard Readiness Evaluation and Analysis, he implemented a complete overhaul of readiness reporting and lessons learned systems, coordinated the Service-wide conversion to the new Global Command and Control System, and also served on the 1995 Headquarters Reorganization Working Group and the Commandant’s Aviation Resiting Study.  

CAPT Dunn served as both an Air Force pilot and Coast Guard aviator.  He was an HU-25 Instructor Pilot and Flight Examiner and logged over 5,000 hours in six different fixed wing aircraft.  As Operations Officer of the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center, he was directly responsible for the flight safety, operational readiness, and successful completion of flight operations that provided Service-wide aircraft transition training and standardization.

CAPT Dunn retired from the Coast Guard in 2004 and is currently an aviation consultant to government agencies and A&E firms working on aviation projects.

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