Lieutenant Colonel James W. Hammond III, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), a 1982 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served in Operation Desert Storm and commanded an artillery battery with the 15th MEU during the amphibious landing into Mogadishu, Somalia, in December 1992. Before retiring in 2005, he was an analyst in Headquarters Marine Corps’ Strategic Initiative Group and director of the Commandant’s Staff Group. He currently works as a DoD analyst and consultant. He won Second Prize—Rising Historian Category in the 2017 CNO Naval History Essay Contest.