Mr. Michael Peznola is the Chief of Staff/Dean of Administration for the National War College and a Retired US Marine Corps Colonel. His military career spanned 30 years in command and staff positions from Infantry Platoon Commander to Commander, Marine Special Operations Advisor Group. His overseas tours included Somalia, Afghanistan, Cuba, Japan and Europe; this includes operational deployments to Somalia with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable)(1993) and Afghanistan as the Director, Operations/Intelligence Fusion Cell, NATO SOF (2011) and as the Chief of Staff, Special Operations Task Force, Bagram (2013). He served multiple tours in Washington DC and Quantico in the service headquarters at the Manpower Department and joint duty in Stuttgart Germany as the Assistant Chief of Staff, US European Command.
Upon retirement from the Marine Corps, he served as the Executive Director, Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University and most recently at Plymouth State University as the Academic Operations Manager.
He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and possess an MS in Military Studies from the USMC Command and Staff College and an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.
FUNCTIONAL EXPERTISE: Strategic planning and leadership, Special Operations, Resource Management, Military Operations
"Pez." as we all knew, him, was appointed my Executive Director, in charge of Administration and Finance. I was to be in charge of education, academics and intellectual life. He entered the Institiute by fiat of the Tufts Administration at an interesting turbulent time, when the Institute and I personally were under an external review, prompted by what turned out to be unproven specious charges. I apparently was considered an unorthodox maverick by the Tufts Monaco administration
He was recommended to the President's and Provost's office by the then Fletcher Dean, Admiral James Stavridis, for whom he had recently been his senior adviser
Over a two years he had an office next to mine. He reviewed our books, our practices, observed our conduct, attended our programs, classes, everything, and he really took the time to understand the uniqueness of the Institute. Given his Marine Corps background I asked him to be a special adviser to our civil-military initiative, ALLIES. He was a wonderful, fun and intriguing colleague.
At one point, after months together, he gave me one of the most touching of my Institute mementos. This is this inscription Pez wrote in his gift to me of the biography of John Boyd, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Boyd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategist)
Sherm:
John Boyd was the designer of the F-16 and more importantly developed a warfighting concept of the OODA(Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) of warfighting.
John was a significant influence on me and the Marine Corps. He was an intellectual radical who had a dramatic, intellectual impact on the Corps from the 80's until today, often seen as an outsider in his own service(USAF) with a larger than life personality, who took risks for the betterment of the intellectual soul of the military.
I see much of John Boyd in you.
Here is my favorite Boyd quote which he told me in person in 1989.
"And you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go in," he raised his hand and pointed "if you go that way you can be somebody, you will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends, but you will be a member of the club, you will get promoted and you will get the good assignments. Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed in the other direction. Or you can go that way and you can do something - something for your country and yourself. If you decide you want to do something you may not be promoted, and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you wouldn't compromise yourself. You will be true to yourself and your friends. And your work might make a difference. To be somebody or do something. In life there is often a roll call. That is when you will have to make a decision To Be of To Do. Which way will you go?
Enjoy the book.
Semper Fidelis
Pez
